To Diminish A Light
by wannabe-here
Summary: A long time ago, strange Orbs appeared that could grant people extraordinary abilities. Excavation teams have been created to find and capture the Orbs to obtain their power and help to further understand them. Today, does Seirin stand a chance in the race to these Orbs, even after the superhuman Generation of Miracles have joined their own teams? (WIP)
1. Introduction

Light and Dark.

Their presence in the world is ever consistent and inarguable. However, there was a time when this presence was so substantial that both Light and Dark took physical forms. These manifestations were known as "Orbs". When found—and after considerable exposure to—these Orbs could give humans incredible power.

Though there was one issue that those who wished to harness the power of the Orbs faced; the Orbs were incredibly selective. Specifically, they were only able to be captured and used by those younger than the age of 20; adolescents.

For adults, the changes to them are merely spiritual. Light Orbs, Akari, give a boost in morale and fighting spirit. Dark Orbs, Yami, give a greater advantage when fighting enemies, causing confusion and fear. For teenagers, there is a physical change. They can be granted an increase in physical ability and develop special talents if exposed to an Orb. Strangely, children when exposed will experience a different change than that the other two. The abilities they gain are on a separate caliber than that of the talents they could receive if Exposed as teens. However, a majority of children can not physically handle the powers that the Orbs have to offer so many encounters children have with the Orbs are fatal.

The desire for these Orbs was strong and many would do whatever it took to get their hands on either of the types. Since adults could not wield the power themselves, they set to using children to help accomplish their goals. Some planned on helping others, others planned on helping themselves.

It was clear that something needed to be done to help contain the chaos that would ensue from the presence of the Orbs, so adults set up schools with the purpose to teach the teens who desired to learn more of the Orbs the secrets and the proper safety precautions. These schools would choose a select few students to go on Excavations to find and capture Orbs for their school or funded organization. It was outlawed to get younger children involved in the business of Excavating. They would be taught the dangers and basic facts about the Akari and Yami in elementary and junior high school, but the option to further study the Orbs would not be available until high school.

But just because it was outlawed does not mean the rules were not defiled. There are many cases of young children having been purposely exposed to different sub-species of either Akari or Yami.

There is one infamous, and rather controversial, case in which an organization secretly disregarded the laws set to protect the children and instead exposed them to a dangerously high level of Radiance, the energy given off by the Akari Orbs.

Teiko Technology, publicly known as one of the world's leading technologically advanced industries, conducted unorthodox experiments on children to further study the effects of the Orbs. It is unknown exactly how many, but countless children lost their lives due to Teiko's heinous crimes.

Miraculously, there were seven individual experiments that were reportedly successful in exposing the children of similar ages to Radiance. Thusly, they were known as the Generation of Miracles.

There was little to no information regarding the children who underwent these experiments. No relatives were known, no names were known, not even what they looked like could be confirmed for certain. Only the names of each individual color of Radiance they were exposed to was able to be pulled out of the encrypted files of Teiko, once the company fell. So the colors became the children's names.

Murasaki, Hai, Midori, Momo, Ao, Ki, and Aka.

Once Teiko's underhanded experiments were exposed, the Generation of Miracles were able to break away from the fetters of Teiko Technology and seemingly vanished. Though their location was unknown, the Generation of Miracles were not gone. There were many reported sightings of members of the Generation of Miracles together, though there were only ever five members seen together at a time. Originally, Aka, Midori, Ao, Murasaki, and Hai were known as the primary team, but eventually Hai disappeared and was replaced by Ki. It is unknown what became of Momo, though it is speculated that Momo was more so a strategist rather than an Excavator and helped the team from the sidelines.

To this day, there was no team that was as successful as they were at Excavations. By using their unmatchable powers, the Miracles captured and did away with the Orbs, and in turn saved many children from a fate that, at best, would have matched their own.

Though soon enough, by the time the children reached high school age, they split up and went on their own paths. It is speculated that they joined schools and Excavation teams of their own.

There was a strange rumor however, that there was another successful experiment, a single case in which an individual child survived the exposure to Shade, the usually harmful, and in most cases fatal, energy given off by Yami Orbs. This individual's existence was confirmed to be true by past employees of Teiko, but many do not know of their name.

The Generation of Miracles state that there were always six of them on a team for an Excavation, but only five were ever seen.

Could there possibly have been a phantom sixth member of the Generation of Miracles that the world has not seen?

 **Author: Hello and welcome to my first KuroBas story, as well as my first story on this account! I had some problems with my old email so I can no longer access my old FF account. I'm basically starting from scratch here with this account, but that's okay! My interests have changed and such. KNB is also my fav anime as well as show, I've watched it twice in the past couple of years and every now and then I go back a re-rewatch certain episodes.**

 **So I had the idea for the GoM being essentially superhumans for a little while and I really wanted to experiment with that idea, and thus this story was born! I wanted to adapt the KNB series as a whole and I wasn't sure how to do it because how do you make basketball players crime fighters? I also didn't want to do the traditional superhero route because you lose the team dynamic and that'd also mean I'd have to make the teams that they played evil which I didn't want to do (at least not to all the teams) and so I came up with this dumb idea. XD**

 **If you couldn't tell, the Orbs are symbolic of basketballs and the ideals that are reflected in the series and I'll further get into how the powers work when this story really gets into gear, but I'm still working things out myself…**

 **Right now, the plan is to adapt the original storyline into this AU. I'm also not too sure what the rating will be, but I'm just going to leave it at Teen for now, just to be safe. It may or may not go up, but don't expect anything too explicit. The rating may only go up because of violence, but we'll see...**

 **Please review! Also, if you have any questions or ideas, please don't be afraid to send them my way!**


	2. Does Somone Like That Even Exist?

_**Seirin Private High School, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan**_

"Haaaaaaaaaaa _aaaaaaugh_ "

"Something the matter, Koganei?" asked Tsuchida with a concerned tone. The other boys in the group were hoping that if they just ignored their classmate, Koganei would drop the subject. However, ever considerate Tsuchida of course had to ask his friend what was troubling him. Usually with Koganei though, the reason for his agony was always rather trivial.

"We've been trying to get sign ups _all morning_ and not a single person seemed interested!" complained the brunette.

"Well that's not exactly true," started Izuki. "We handed out a lot of flyers."

"That doesn't mean that they're interested! A lot of them are probably going just throw the flyers away…" pouted the Second Year.

The other Second Years quieted at this. ' _Well he has a point'_ was the collective thought. Then, a silent yet detectable hum seemed to go through the air as the quiet one of the group gestured with his hand.

"Ah, I guess you're right, Mitobe!" Koganei perked up, giving a cat-like grin, trying to appear optimistic. "There _were_ a few First Years who seemed pretty interested!."

"Mm. They were never Exposed though, so the chances of them going out on Excavations are pretty slim…" Izuki pointed out.

"Still, that doesn't mean they're not useful to the team! There are plenty of Excavation teams that have members who've never even seen an Orb." Tsuchida countered with a frown.

Which was true. The rate of Exposures has decreased in recent years. The Orbs had not ceased to appear, but they now did so more sporadically, so teams quickly went after them. These days, it was less common to be exposed to an Orb and thus awaken the special talents one could gain via Exposure.

Seirin Private High School was a new school, having only opened up it's doors to students the previous year. It's student body was made up mostly of Second Years with a good amount of Third Years who transferred from different schools. Today was the first day of a new school year and it was ample time to recruit new members for school teams and clubs, however…

"Excavation teams are sort of falling out of style these days, what with the appearances of Orbs becoming more and more rare with each passing year..." Izuki sighed. "Our team isn't even well known in our own prefecture. There are plenty of other schools who are more successful than us." the others all looked off in silence, the crowd seemingly forgotten as they all recalled the struggles they face trying to keep up with the other schools last year. "After all, what you seize is what you get."

"…"

Finally, Tsuchida broke the current bout of silence with. "Was...that a pun?" Izuki seemed to beam at that and open his mouth to undoubtedly give an explanation to the pun, but before he could get the words out Koganei cut him off with;

"Bad puns aside, all we really need to get our club going would be to get just one member who can completely change the whole team dynamic. But you know, in a good way!" Koganei suggested.

There was a moment of awed silence as the rest of the Second Years though on this. "That's odd," Izuki remarked. "Koganei said something pretty smart."

"I don't need to hear that from _you_!" screeched back the other Second Year.

"That's a good point." Tsuchida said, looking thoughtful. "A strong player who could change the flow of the mission…"

Izuki frowned. "Does someone like that even exist?" he questioned skeptically with a raised brow.

"Hey, you!" bellowed an unknown voice, confusing the group. "Um, I mean, excuse me…" it trailed off.

Koganei looked around, then the source of the voice was found as he looked up.

And up, and up, and…

At a table set off to the side, shaded under a blooming cherry blossom tree, two Second Years sat, one a boy with dark hair and glasses and the other a girl of small stature with short brown hair. The brunette gave a sigh as she placed some papers down onto the tabletop, bouncing the top of her pen off the plastic surface of the folding table. Her friend noticed the nervous habit of hers. It usually meant that she was thinking pretty deeply on something.

"What's wrong, Riko?" asked the bespectacled teen.

"The roster for this year just has me concerned." confessed Aida Riko as she started to shuffle through the applications that they had received for the Excavation team, her brows knitted in concern. "There was lots of interest but…"

Hyuuga realized what Aida must've been thinking too. Lots of kids applied, but none of them had what they were looking for. Many kids marked in their applications that they were Exposed, but Aida could tell that it must've been pretty recently or not enough to cause any change.

"Lots of them were lying, huh?" Hyuuga sighed as he leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. A scowl crossed his face. "The nerve of those freshman…"

"Well, they weren't all necessarily lying…" Aida argued, resting her cheek in her palm. She closed her eyes as she recalled the other teens she saw that morning. "Some of them could've easily been in the presence of an Orb, but you hear how these days they've been affecting people less and less." she slumped down on the table, looking sullen but still managing to give a smirk. "Yes, you and I might be a part of a dying generation, my friend."

Hyuuga furrowed his brows, giving his long time friend a strange look. It was like her to sound so reminiscing and whimsical. That annoying trait was reserved for _someone else..._ "Sometimes it's better to be in a dying generation. Less competition." he shrugged.

"And less of a chance to improve your team. You heard how that _other_ generation went on to other schools didn't you?" she retorted with a scoff, sounding more like her usual self.

"You know I have." he said through gritted teeth. It was clear that Hyuuga too was concerned and dreading the day when their team would have to go against a Miracle. ' _If they even got that far...'_

Aida groaned in frustration, putting her hands up to her hair and giving the short strands small tugs. "We need to get stronger to compete with these other schools, we don't need a repeat of last year. If only we had some ridiculously strong members ourselves…"

Hyuuga gave Aida an annoyed smirk. "You're not putting pressure on your Captain now are you, Coach?"

Aida relaxed, giving a curt chuckle. "I don't mean to, but we have a lot of work ahead of us. Hopefully Izuki-kun and the others were able to find some hardworking recruits."

As if on cue, a shadow was cast in front of their already shaded table and the visibly distraught face of Koganei— _were those tears in his eyes?_ —appeared in front of them.

"A-a r-recruit is here…" he whimpered out.

"Huh?"

Both Hyuuga and Aida were about to question their classmate about his current state, but all sense of speech vanished as they both noticed the arm that was gripping Koganei, hovering his torso just over their table. Aida looked up. And up, and up till-

Her vision was assaulted by different shade of deep red. ' _Scarlet and mahogany_ ' her mind supplied. The source of the color was a looming teenager. ' _Teenager. He has to be a teen. He looks young but he's huge.'_ His skin was tanned, but not dark. ' _Sun kissed'._ Everything that Riko saw was mesmerizing but none quite so as ' _his eyes_ '. Not only were they just yet another shade of shocking red-' _crimson'-_ but they were filled with something. Something strange, a spark that Riko had so rarely seen. They were knit with ' _determination. No, passion'_ , but his scowl told a different story. ' _Rage? Contempt?'_ But yet there was something else.' _Apprehensive desire?'_

"I wanna join." a deep voice rumbled, for that was the only way to describe it. It rumbled like thunder, shocking Riko out of her analysis.

She had so many things to ask. ' _Where did you come from? Who are you? When were you Exposed?_ ' because clearly he had been. He was radiating with power, with pure strength. He had to have been Exposed, but still something felt...off. ' _What are you?'_ was another question she wanted to ask, but all she managed to get out was; "What?"

"The Excavation team," he started, dropping Koganei to the ground-who gave a startled squawk-as he grabbed a chair that was positioned in front of both Aida and Hyuuga and sat himself down in it. "I wanna join it."

"A-Ah! Hold on just a moment!" Aida chimed, her face breaking out in a grin. She grabbed the pitcher of water and ice that sat on the table and one of the plastic cups sitting next to it, speedily, yet carefully pouring a glass for the imposing newcomer. "My name is Aida Riko and this is Hyuuga Junpei, the Captain of the Excavation team. Now-"

"I don't care." cut off the redhead.

"Excuse me?" Hyuuga asked dumbfounded, with an underlying tone of irritation. Aida hope he wouldn't get too mad. Sure, it was rather rude of the newcomer to cut her off, but she didn't want Hyuuga scaring off such a valuable asset.

"I said I don't care." he said rather matter of factly, grabbing one of the forms on the table, placing it in front of him and scribbling on top of the paper with one of the pens that was nearby. "I'm leaving after I write down my name."

"A-ah, alright." Aida responded rather shocked. He must have things to do, it was the first day of school after all. As the redhead stood up, Aida reached across the table and took the form that he left behind. Her eyebrows drew up. "Huh?"

Hyuuga heard her remark and noticed her confused expression looking at his form. Now Hyuuga's eyebrows raised as he gave the redhead a confused look of his own after ready the form himself. "You don't have a reason for joining?" he asked.

The redhead gave a groan as he cracked his neck slightly. "Not really. A missions a mission, an Orbs an Orb. I don't care about the stupid details. As long as I'm strong, it doesn't matter how the job is done. Just so long as it gets done." he informed, chugging the rest of his water and crushing the plastic cup. "I've been living out of the country since my second year of middle school and I've been disgusted with the lack of power ever since I got back. Everything about Japan is weak, even it's Orb supply isn't lasting long. I figured I'd come back before they were all gone." the redhead turned to leave, tossing his cup into the trash from behind his back. Aida's eyes became a bit wider. ' _Such accuracy. And certainty…'_

"I'll be at the training tryouts. Not that I need to go…" he added that last part as if for himself but the others heard him well enough. The redhead gave one last menacing look over his shoulder and was eventually out of their sight as he was lost in the sea of students.

"S-so scary!" Koganei exclaimed, having to have gotten over his shocked silence by now.

"Was that really a freshman?" asked Tsuchida.

"He acted quite cocky. A bit like a Sir Gawain type character, didn't you think?" supplied Izuki who was revealed to also have returned, along with Mitobe behind him.

"Where were you guys?!" shouted Koganei in a betrayed tone.

"He didn't need four of us to escort him so we circled around a few times until we were sure he didn't notice us." supplied Tsuchida. "You look like you handled it well though."

"Barely!" Koganei screeched back.

Izuki's eyes seem to flash for a moment, as if he had an epiphany. "The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference."

" **Izuki, shut up**." came Hyuuga's immediate reply.

"Kagami Taiga…" Aida read from the paper, effectively closing the door on the opportunity for one of the boys to start an argument. "Oh. He lived in America during middle school."

"Really?" Hyuuga questioned. "He must've learned from the experts then. After all, the first Orb encounters were in one of their states, weren't they?"

"Yes." If Aida remembered correctly, it was Nevada. Sightings were quickly reported all over the world a few years later. Japan was still in it's infancy, in terms of dealing with the Orbs and were still developing their understanding of them. Suddenly another part of the form that the teen didn't neglect to fill out caught Aida's eye and they widened. "N-no way!"

The others all seemed alarmed at her outburst but it was Tsuchida who asked first; "What is it?"

"H-He's a Type A!" she exclaimed.

"What?!" Hyuuga asked in disbelief, the scowl dropping off his face, he quickly grabbed the paper from Aida and started to read it himself. "He says he was Exposed when he was 9?"

"T-That's impossible! There haven't been any Type As in decades. Except for…" Izuki trailed off, but they all knew what he was going to say. ' _Except for the Miracles'._

"But he was living in America during the rise of Teiko, he's not one of them. But the potential I see when I look at him...it's as if he could've been one, under different circumstances." Aida pondered.

Hyuuga gave a loud sigh, leaning back in his chair. "So you _did_ see something. That's why you were gawking for so long."

"I wasn't gawking!" she yelled back. He was lucky she was too shocked to hit him. Besides, she didn't have her paper fan handy. Then suddenly, the bell sounded, signaling the end of the scouting portion of the day.

Aida stood up, gathering the forms the were spread across the table. "It's strange, but he seems as if he's on a whole different level. With someone like him on our team, we may just have a chance competing with the other schools!"

The others in the group paused at this. Aida was right, as always. With a player like this Kagami, maybe they even stood a chance against a team with a Miracle on it?

Koganei gave goofy grin at the thought. As he picked his head up from the table however, he noticed something sticking to his face. Oh. It's a paper. "Hey, Coach! You forgot this one."

Aida gave a sheepish smile. "Ah, sorry!" she took the form from Koganei's hand and started to read it over as she place it with the others. "Let's see. Kuroko Tetsuya...A first year and-" Aida's eyes bulged yet again as she noticed a certain box on the form. "H-He's a Type A too!" she shouted in shock.

"What?!" was the collective response from the rest of the boys.

Hyuuga looked over Aida's shoulder, reading the form for himself. "I-It must be another exception or typo maybe…" he trailed off, refusing to believe.

"No, it says he's always lived here. It says he was educated and trained by…" Aida paled, stopping in her tracks again. "N-No way…T-This can't be…I-It's not…"

Hyuuga couldn't wait for his Riko to gather her composure, so he glanced at the section she was currently reading herself, and soon he felt her same astonishment.

"Teiko Technology!?" he shouted out for the rest of the team to hear.

" _Huuuuhhhh?!_ " Even stoic Mitobe looked astonished.

"A Miracle?!" asked Tsuchida apprehensively, barely managing to conceal his excited tone. "Did we really get a Miracle?"

"What did he look like?! What was he like?! What'd he say?!" Koganei question at the speed of light, not even bothering to try to cover up his own excitement.

Aida had her hands back up to her head, tugging on her hair. "I...I can't remember! Oh, why can't I remember that golden egg's face?!" she berated herself.

"Two Type As?" Izuki now chimed in. "The freshman this year are ridiculous…"

 **Author: Annnd, here we go! Story's still not really started up yet, but I hope I didn't confuse anybody too much. I also really hope you enjoy this, because your reactions really do decide the fate of this story.**

 **Also, I'm going to be using the name's in the Japanese way so family name first and then given name last, if there's any confusion over that. I also decided just to keep Aida and Hyuuga's titles as Coach and Captain respectfully because I feel like they just work well. If anything, Aida may be more of a director of operations in this AU, but I'll just leave the title as Coach.**

 **Please review and I hope you enjoyed!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own KNB or any of the puns Izuki will be saying throughout this AU. I get them from various pun websites and just try to incorporate them into the story, lol.**


	3. I'm Kuroko Tetsuya

Hyuuga barely suppressed a yawn as he made his way to the school training room. ' _It's too early for a Saturday. I guess Coach is just pumped today…'_ he thought to himself, knowing how Riko could get when excited. If Hyuuga had to admit it, he was pretty pumped too. There was some promising talent today. It was finally time to see what these freshman could do…

"Excuse me." he announced as he slide open the door to the training room. It wasn't much, especially compared to other schools, some had _arenas_ , but it was still pretty spacious. Plus it was still new, having only been in use for about a year. After entering, Hyuuga was surprised to see that everyone else was already there. ' _Guess we're not the only excited ones…_ "

"There you are, Hyuuga-kun!" Riko exclaimed as if exasperated. Her expression quickly darkened as she gave an intimidating look, causing Hyuuga to stop in his tracks. "You're late." her voice drawled.

"S-Sorry. I needed to stop at the office to turn in some paperwork." he confessed. Thank the gods he had a legitimate excuse!

And just like that, Riko's scowl vanished and she beamed at him. "Ah, then that's okay! You arrived at a good time then, I was just about to start roll call." she informed as she tapped the clipboard in her hand with one of her nails.

"Good." he responded, quickly removing his outside shoes and replacing them with the worn sneakers he used for training. He placed his bag down over with the rest of the Second Year's stuff and made his way over to his classmates.

"You're lucky." Izuki said giving him a smirk. "She was just complaining about your tardiness. Pretty loudly too." Hyuuga gave a grunt in response, not starting a conversation as their Coach just blew the whistle that she keeps around her neck for some reason. She probably just likes startling them.

"Attention, new recruits! Fall into a line!" commanded Aida. Quickly, four young boys formed a line right in front of the lone female in the room. "Welcome and congratulations on having your applications accepted by the Excavations team! You're here because your applications looked promising and you appear to be the best of the bunch. But today is all about finding out whether that's true or not." she informed as she started walking down the line, observing each recruit as she went. "Your spot on this team is not guaranteed however. Today your skills will be put to the test and if all goes well, you will then be a member of Seirin." she stop walking once she returned to her former spot in front of the teenaged boys. "Any questions?" A few boys gave each other concerned looks, but other than that she was met with silence. "Excellent! Now when I call your name, you'll give me a short introduction including your full name, class, age, and type." she adjusted her clipboard so that it was no longer at her hip and she could now read the names. "Furihata-kun?"

"H-here!" came the stuttered reply.

"Did you forget the Coach's orders? Introduce yourself!" Hyuuga reprimanded. He could be such a stickler for rules and hierarchy that one…

"O-Oh yeah! Sorry!" Furihata straightened up even more, if that was even possible. "Furihata Kouki, First Year, 16 years old, and I'm a Type B!"

"Very good, Furihata-kun." Riko praised, hoping to calm the boy down a bit. "When and how were you Exposed?" she asked.

That question seemed to have caught the other boy off guard. "A-Ah, it was a few years ago. I must've been about 14. I was walking home from school one day and suddenly I saw these blinding rays of light. They were all sorts of fantastic colors. I-I'm pretty sure they were the Generation of Miracles…They looked like they were chasing something" the Second Years seemed to perk up at this. It was rare for someone to actually spot them, for when the Generation of Miracles used to be together, they never stuck around any place for long. "I was so shocked that I found myself not being able to move, even after they were gone. In fact, I didn't even notice a bright beam of light hurling right at me until it was too late. After that, I lost consciousness. I woke up suddenly in an alley, a different place than I was when I was hit. Then I went home. My mother was nervous, so she took me to the doctor and they were able to run some tests and determined I was a Type B."

Riko nodded at this. It was a fairly standard story. Being hit with a blinding light and then taking a trip to the doctor's only to find you've been changed, given special abilities. "Very interesting, Furihata-kun. Do you know what your ability is?" she asked.

Furihata seemed to deflate at that. "A-Ah, no. I've never been able to figure it out. Or get it to work…" he trailed off, looking away and sounding disappointed.

Aida nodded once again. "That's alright. Sometimes it takes a while for people to present their talents. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll be able to draw out your full potential here at Seirin."

Furihata looked up a bit shocked, but then a huge grin broke out across his face. "Y-Yes, ma'am!" he said breathlessly.

Aida gave a curt nod before she continued her list, scribbling some things down before she moved on. "Kawahara-kun?" she asked.

"Here!" responded a different teen with a buzzcut and dark brown eyes. "Kawahara Koichi, First Year, age 16, and I'm a Type C so I'm pretty normal."

"Hmm." Riko hummed, narrowing her eyes a bit and raising a brow. "So tell me, Kawahara-kun, why does a 'normal' guy like yourself deserve to be on this team?" she asked.

Kawahara seemed to notice his mistake and flinched, but then noticed that the Coach gave him a fair opening to defend himself. He smiled, taking on a sure yet whimsical expression as he told his tale. "Well you see, ever since I was a child I've alway dedicated myself to helping others to the best of my abilities and I never gave up, not matter the odds. I say my desire to assist all started when I was in the 1st grade when-"

"He's very spirited and dedicated." cut in on of the other new recruits, this one with short, slicked back brown hair, a few pieces falling in front of his forehead. "He's really a great guy to have on your side. His stories get a little long winded, though."

Aida gave soft, humorless laugh. "Yes, I see…" she trailed, writing something down quickly onto her clipboard. "And you are?

He seemed a little caught off guard, but recovered quickly. "Fukuda Hiroshi, First Year, 16 years old, I'm also a Type C." he informed.

"Mhm. And why are you a good asset to this team?" she asked, taking more notes.

"I'm a hardworker. I'm athletic and a team player." he smiled. "I'm not very smart, but my grades are pretty average. I'll help out in any situation I can and I can always be relied on." Fukuda finished.

Aida was impressed, he seemed pretty nervous, the other two did as well, but he was very good at present himself. A nice smooth talker, it seemed. "Thank you, Fukuda-kun. We're always looking for loyal team members such as Kawahara-kun and yourself. We hope to help you achieve all you plan to here." she smiled. Fukuda and Kawahara both smiled brightly at each other and then looked to Furihata who looked equally as happy for them. ' _Must be friends.'_ Aida thought, for they certainly acted like so. "Now onto…" Riko's eyes moved down the line until they landed on who she was searching for. "Kagami-kun."

Again, Aida's vision was met with those complimentary shades of red and that tall, strongly built figure. His signature grimace was still taking residence on his face, she noticed.

"Kagami Taiga," he rumbled, this time with the growl of a tiger seemingly mixed in with his husky tone. "First Year, 16, Type A." Riko as well as the other Second Years were already expecting the last part, but not the other First Years. They all seemed to stop in their tracks and stare at their imposing classmates with looks of both shock and awe, and maybe a bit of terror on Furihata's end.

"And can you recount the case of your Exposure for us, Kagami-kun?" she beckoned, trying not to sound too excited, which was quite hard. They were all on the edge of their seats.

He raised a brow, seeming as if he was about to refused but after a moment he let out a low sigh. "I don't see why it matters, but fine." he focused his eyes on the Second Years and folded his arms across his broad chest. "My father works for a big American company that focused on researching and understanding Orbs. He's a research scientist. One day when I was a kid and visiting his lab there was an accident that caused my Exposure. I was trained by the best of the best over in America to help advance my powers and now I'm here to see what Japan has to offer." he finished smoothly.

Everyone in the room seemed to be in stunned silence. Not only was he Exposed in America when he was only a young kid, but he's been training and developing his powers with a team of American scientists. ' _As if this guy wasn't already ridiculous…'_

"A-Ah." Aida started, breaking the silence and hastily writing on her clipboard before she forgot. "Well. We hope you find what you're looking for, Kagami-kun."

Said redhead gave a scoff at this and Hyuuga looked as if he was about to reprime him for it, but he was silence by Mitobe's hand resting on his shoulder. The Captain gave out a sigh as he rubbed at his temples, appearing to have listened to the silent request.

"Now that introductions are out of the way, I'd like to officially welcome the five of you to the Seirin Excavation team!" Aida grinned, resting her clipboard back on her hip. "Now it's on to the fun part with-"

"Wait a sec, Coach!" a voice suddenly shouted, scaring Riko.

"What?!" she snapped back, not appreciating being interrupted by one of her own classmates.

Koganei, who was the one to call her name, paled and jumped a bit, moving to shrink behind Mitobe. "W-Well, it's just-You said 'the five of you' but…" the brunette trailed off pointing to the freshmen. Aida gave a confused look, following his pointing hand.

There was nothing wrong though. The freshmen were there, all four of them-

' _Wait a second!'_

"There's only four of you?" questioned Izuki, sounding confused.

"I didn't even notice she said five of you…" Tsuchida admitted.

"Who's the straggler?" Hyuuga asked threateningly, an aura of irritation developing around him.

'It's not clutch time, Hyuuga!" shouted Izuki in alarm.

"I didn't even realize I made a mistake." Riko admitted, looking back at her clipboard. "Of course!" she shouted, mentally slapping herself. "Where's Kuroko-kun?"

Everyone looked around for the late comer. ' _How could I forget? This is the other Type A. The one who was from Teiko.'_ Riko berated herself. "Where's Kuroko Tetsuya-kun?" she asked again after not receiving a reply.

Again, silence.

"I guess he's not here." supplied Tsuchida.

Aida, as well as the rest of the Second Years seemed to become disappointed at this. "Ah, well I guess there's no helping it." Aida raised up her pen back to the clipboard and went to cross the name off when suddenly a chill went up her spine as she heard in a soft voice;

"Excuse me."

" _ **Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!**_ "

Everyone in the room seemed to jump at least 2 feet in the air as suddenly someone appeared in front of them. He looked as if he was a ghostly apparition with pale skin-' _porcelain'-_ and light blue hair-' _artic'_ was the shade of blue that came to Riko's mind. Something else that was strange about him was his eyes. They were of a deeper blue-' _lapis'_ -but they appeared to be dull, not nearly as light as the rest of his features.

"I'm Kuroko Tetsuya." the apparition informed.

"W-When did you get here?" shouted Hyuuga, appearing to not yet be over his shock, but it didn't seem that anyone else was either.

The apparition-no, _Kuroko_ \- then cast his deadpan look over to Hyuuga and his lips parted as he said in a voice that could easily have been mistaken as the wind; "I've been here since the beginning."

"What?!" Koganei didn't buy it. He laughed it off with a; "No, you couldn't have been."

"But I was?" Kuroko said, in a tone that didn't seem to change much, but Aida could pick up the confusion.

Izuki sighed and gave the boy a pat on the shoulder. "Look, it's alright if you were late." he reassured with a smile. "It's only the first day after all, you just must've gotten lost. It's okay."

Kuroko then gave the slightest of tilts with his head, so slight that Riko wasn't sure anyone else caught it. "But I didn't get lost." he protested in the same airy tone. "I really was here since the beginning. I heard the roll call and the rules. I even saw," suddenly, that ghostly face was turned and looked straight at Hyuuga. "him come in late. Hyuuga-senpai, correct?"

Everyone was even more confused. It was Kawahara who broke the silence as everyone tried to work out just how they didn't notice this kid. "S-Sorry, Kuroko. I didn't notice you there." the rest of the freshmen followed suit with similar words and apologies. Except for Kagami, who for the first time didn't have that scowl on his face but a stupefied look. Riko would have appreciated it more if she herself weren't so confused.

"I-I apologize, Kuroko-kun. That was rather rude of us." Aida finally managed to say.

Kuroko then turned his head back towards Riko. "That's alright, Aida-san. I'm actually quite used to it." he admitted.

"Still, I should have realized such a qualified individual was amongst us." she said, giving a slight bow of apology.

Kuroko's eyes seemed to widen ever so slightly at the small compliment. "Um, it's alright. But I'm a little confused by what you mean." he confessed.

"It's just, you're a Type A. And you were trained with _the_ Teiko Technology, the most advanced Orb research center in Japan."

The other freshmen seemed interested at this and gave their classmate shocked expressions. Kagami as well seemed to raise his strange eyebrows a bit more in curiosity at the last part.

Kuroko scratched his cheek with a finger in a seemingly sheepish gesture. "Ah. I see."

"Nee, were you really trained at Teiko?" Koganei asked, coming up to the short First Year.

"Ah, yes." Kuroko replied.

"I see," Izuki started. "You were an intern." he smiled.

Kuroko's brows seemed to twitch a bit. On anyone else, it would have been an eyebrow raise. "No. I was on their Excavation team."

"Heh" Koganei breathed out in response. " _Heh_?" he looked around with a lost look. " _ **Heeeeeeehhhhh?!**_ "

' _The Excavation team of Teiko was the Generation of Miracles._ ' everyone, minus Kagami, knew. ' _There's...there's no-'._

"No, no," Tsuchida laughed nervously, moving his hands in a placating gesture. "You must've gathered info for them then."

Kuroko seemingly _pouted_ at that. "No?" he replied. "I went on missions."

" _ **Huuuuuuuuuh?!**_ "

"Calm down, everyone!" Riko shouted, everyone quieting down at the command of the Coach. "We've been spending too much time on this. I would like to be done before night falls!" even though she was _extremely_ confused herself, they really did need to move on. Besides, there was no better way to test Kuroko than-

"Okay, let's get this show on the road." she commanded, clapping her hands. "Furihata-kun, Kagami-kun, and Kuroko-kun," she started, all three seemingly to perk up, except for Kuroko who still had that deadpan expression. "It's time for your Physical Capability tests."

* * *

 **Author: My fingers hurt from typing, geez.** **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! It was pretty easy to get out, especially after those nice reviews I received.**

 **I'm telling you, reviews really get me going, so keep 'em coming!**

 **Get ready for some showcasing of abilities next chapter and the meeting of our two protagonists!**

 **Btw, you'll get more information on Kagami's backstory and his time in America later on.**

 **Also, since people seem pretty curious, I don't have any set pairings for this story yet. I'm not sure how this story is going to go. All pairings are probably going to be hinted at, unless I plan on turning this romantic. If I decide to do that however, you guys should know that I'm a fan of pretty much any and all Kuroko pairings. If it does turn romantic there's a high chance that it'll end up being KagaKuro or possibly even GOMxKuro (or GOM+KagaxKuro because why the hell not? The more the merrier!). After all, I'm a sucker for Kuroko being smothered and showered with all the love and affection he deserves. After he gets a bit of whump of course, after all this story is "action packed".**


	4. What's This Guy's Problem?

The Coach started yelling at some of the other Second Years and then they hurriedly ran out of the room. It looked they they were sent to get something, but Kagami couldn't really be bothered with what. He was too engrossed in staring at the short boy standing next to him. Kagami _has_ heard of the Generation of Miracles, everyone at Metro Labs—where his dad worked—made sure he was always educated on his ' _competition'_ , but damn Taiga if he could remember anything else other than the basics. He heard they were crazy strong and powerful, and he pretty much just stopped listening after that. He heard the important parts (at least that's what he thought).

' _This guy's a Miracle?'_ It took everything he had to not burst out laughing. ' _He looks so weak. And his sent…'_ There was something strange about this guy, besides his already odd looking appearance. Everybody gave off a certain…well it wasn't really a smell but he couldn't really think of anything better to call it than a scent. From someone's scent, Kagami could tell someone's strength. The powerful smelt powerful and the weak smelled weak, but this guy…he had no scent.

At that moment, the senpais returned with various bags filled with what Kagami assumed were training supplies.

"Alright," Aida smiled, putting her hands on her hips. "It's time to test your abilities. Furihata-kun, because you aren't quite sure of your powers yet, you'll try out a couple of the supplies and we'll see how they work on you." Furihata gave a nod, a determined expression on his face. Aida then focus on Kagami and he had to stop himself from twitching under that hardset stare. "Kagami-kun and Kuroko-kun, we'll be working on developing your abilities further."

"Yes" both him and Kuroko responded at the same time. Kagami gave a look to the light haired boy. After a moment, Kuroko then looked towards him with a deadpan gaze. But his eyes didn't look like they were simply staring back at him curiously, the sky blue eyes seemed as if they were looking right _into_ him. As if Kuroko was _assessing_ him. As if he was the one to decide whether Kagami would make the team or not. But before Kagami could ask the guy what his problem was, Aida called their attention once again.

"Before that however, Type B Second Years, grab your gear and get ready for a demonstration!" the female announced with an enthusiastic smile.

The rest of the Second Years gave a collective groan at this, seeming as if they were about to protest.

"Oh?" Aida tilted her head in a confused manner. "If you don't want to do a demonstration, that's fine. I was going to go easy on you all since it's the first day back and skip the training for today. But since you _don't_ want to demonstrate," suddenly a threatening air filled the room as she opened her eyes and that innocent smile she had suddenly turned to that of a psychopath who has been crossed. "I can just increase your training menus for the week _tenfold_."

" _ **No!**_ " the room erupted into nervous fits of laughter and placating gestures.

Mitobe waved his hands, translating into a ' _it's fine_ ', a smile on his face but his brows drawn together, as if in pain.

"No, t-that's okay. I-I've been meaning to show these freshmen a thing or t-two." Hyuuga reassured, beads of sweat forming on his forehead, no longer sounding as commanding and sure of himself as when he usually talks about the hierarchy.

"M-my eyes have been cramping up from not using them properly." Izuki confessed, giving a nervous laugh as he, Mitobe, and Hyuuga started sorting through their own equipment bags and each pulled out strange looking objects.

"Nee?" Aida hummed, reverting back to her former image of innocent cuteness. "That's good then!" she beamed. She then turned back to Kagami and the others, who seemed to be experiencing a mixture of awe, confusion, and fright. "Now, First Years. Who can tell me what these are?" she gestured to the shiny looking spherical objects that Hyuuga and the other two were currently attaching to various parts of their bodies.

Fukuda's eyes lit up in recognition. "Ah, I know. They're Akari wielding tools, Youki I think they're called?"

Aida gave a proud smile. "Very good. Anyone know how they work?"

Furihata raised his hand at this. "Ah, I think I do. They help to bring your power to life, right?"

"Something along those lines, yes." Aida confirmed. "You see, just being exposed to an Orb doesn't allow for your true powers to awaken. You may get a mild improvement to your physical being like a slight increase in strength or improved eyesight, maybe. But there's a whole bunch of potential Akari energy stored inside of you that a person just isn't capable of releasing on their own. So, the Youki here serve as a way of drawing that energy out of you, significantly increasing the strength of your abilities."

At this point, the older boys had each finished placing a different looking Youki on themselves. "Now, let's move to the control room to give the boys some room. Follow me, everyone!"

The group, minus Hyuuga, Izuki, and Mitobe, exited the main area, the training floor, and went into a dark room. "Here we go," Riko announced as she flipped a light switch and a spacious room was revealed. There were many large screens that all seemed to be on standby, along with big control panels and a rig of many microphones. There was an area that looked as if it was for lounging, there were also some maps and whiteboards as well. It looked sort of like Mission Control to Kagami.

"Here is our center of operations, the control room!" Aida introduced. So Kagami wasn't that far off. "Here we can receive alerts about new Orb activity, monitor training and missions, pretty much anything we need to review will be in here. If you're not out on missions, you'll be here with Tsuchida-kun, Koganei-kun, and myself. Our job here is to make sure missions run smoothly and that our teammates are alright. Koganei-kun, Tschida-kun, man your stations." she directed.

"Aye aye, Coach!" Koganei singsonged as he swiftly moved into one of the office chairs in front of the screens and panels, doing a couple spins as he landing in it. Tsuchida followed suit, but much for calmly. They both picked up pairs of headsets, placing them over their heads. They then started to flip various switches and push various buttons, the screens in the room lighting up one by one.

"Hyuuga-kun and the others will be wearing some ear pieces that also act as mics, so they can hear us and vice versa. Here at our gym, we also have cameras, so we can see how their training goes and critique their techniques and such." as the Coach said this, an image of the Type Bs, all stretching and getting ready it seemed, flashed onto the screen.

"Can you hear me, Izuki?" Tsuchida asked into his headset.

" _Loud and clear!"_ Izuki's voice, clear and precise, sounded over the loudspeakers. " _But maybe we should start using sign language to communicate? I hear it's pretty handy."_

" _ **Izuki, die.**_ " Hyuuga's voice rang out.

Tsuchida gave an exasperated sounding laugh. "I've got Hyuuga too." he informed. "What about you, Mitobe?" The tallest player on the screen looked up and gave a thumbs up.

"He reads us~." informed Koganei. "We're good to go, Coach."

"Did you set up the health monitors?" Aida asked, seemingly losing patience.

Koganei twitch slightly. "Ah…" he let out. "Just a sec." he requested. Koganei then turned to the panel and started furiously pressing buttons. Then on the screen, three images popped up, each an outline of a male body. Above each image was the name of Hyuuga and the other senpais. "There!" exclaimed the brunette.

"Mm," Aida hummed with annoyed look, but she didn't pick an argument. "Now on the screen in front of Koganei-kun are the health monitors for Hyuuga-kun and the others. We can tell if their stamina is weak or if they're injured, things like that. Now if you'll looked here," she pointed to a flashing light that was emanating from the center of the figure that represented Mitobe's chest. "These flashing lights represent where the connection is strongest between a person and they're Akari energy, meaning that this is where they gain their special ability. If you'd look to the other screen," the others' eyes followed Aida's to the screen that displayed the Type Bs."you'll notice how everyone has a different Youki. That's because different people have different abilities and strengths. By placing a Youki over the spot where someone's power is the strongest, you'll increase that power even more.

"Mitobe-kun here has a Youki attached to his chest because he's what we call a Center. Mitobe-kun is usually quite strong, but with this Youki added, he's able to increase his physical force." Aida then pressed a button, what looked to have been a metal door rising from the floor. "Mitobe-kun," he looked up. "care to give them a demonstration?" she requested.

The silent teen gave a nod as he then walked away from the other two teens in the room with him and stood in front of the metal sheet. "This used to be part of a steel door." Tsuchida informed. "We picked it up from the junkyard. You can find a lot of useful stuff there."

Mitobe placed both his hands on the steel slab, so that his palms were resting against the surface. He seemed to take a silent breath, the Youki on his chest lighting up with a white light, and then he gave the metal a slight push. Instantly, the metal caved in on itself, giving a loud creak. The silent teen removed his hands from the unrecognizable door and took a step back. Clear handprints were now right in the middle of the sheet, where Mitobe's hands used to be.

"Nice, Mitobe~!" Koganei praised. The black hair teen raised his hand up, giving a thumbs up.

"W-Wow." Furihata breathed out.

"That's so cool!" exclaimed Kawahara. "Look at that, there are hand prints!"

Aida smirked. "That's nothing. Mitobe?" He blinked back. "Wanna have go at that dummy?" Mitobe gave a small smile and nod, making his way over to one of the training dummies in the room.

"Dude, he ruined that metal door. That flimsy thing is going to get crushed just from him laying a hand in it." Fukuda commented.

"Oh, he's not gonna touch it." Aida informed and was met with confused stares. "You're set to go, Mitobe-kun."

Said teen then lifted his arms up till his palms were facing the dummy, at the level of his chest. He brought his arms back till he looked as if he was preparing to make a chest pass. The Youki on his chest once again lit up, right as he brought his arms forward, straightening his arms. A wave then launched from the center of his chest, slamming into the dummy and knocking it to the ground, ripping a bit in places.

The Freshmen looked even more shocked.

"Woohoo~!" cheered Koganei. "You held back a bit though didn't you, big guy? You usually break them."

"I told him recently to start holding back a bit more." Aida informed. "We were running out of dummies...You could have gone a little harder, but that's alright Mitobe-kun. Excellent work!" she praised. Mitobe gave a nod and a smile, the light on his Youki dying out, but not fading completely.

"Izuki-kun, your turn." Aida commanded.

" _You got it~._ " his voice rang out over the speakers, cracking his knuckles, turning around so that his back was facing Hyuuga and Mitobe.

"What are those?" asked Fukuda, noticing the strange looking glasses resting on Izuki's face, they seemed to form a mini screen in front of his eyes.

"That's Izuki's Youki." informed Koganei. "He's got an Eagle Eye, so his eyesight is very good. Those little doohickeys help him see things inside his head."

"Mitobe-kun, Hyuuga-kun." Aida simply said. The two seemed to know what that meant because they instantly held up their hands.

"Izuki-kun, what are Mitobe-kun and Hyuuga-kun doing?" asked Aida.

" _Hmm. Mitobe's holding seven fingers._ " which he was, the teen then switched to doing something else. " _Now he's making some glasses out of his hands, very funny._ " Mitobe had both his hands in two upside down 'okay' signs resting over his eyes. " _And Hyuuga,_ " on the screen they could see Izuki grimace. " _he's doing some very rated R gestures at me..._ " he then gave a wide smile. " _Ah, those gestures could come in-"_

" _ **Finish that sentence and I'll kill you**_ " Hyuuga threatened.

"Time to step it up, Izuki-kun." Aida announce.

Izuki gave a nod and closed his eyes, and then suddenly they opened, white and gray light moving around and flashing inside of them. Then one by one, Izuki informed them of what everyone in the control room was currently doing. " _Koganei is spinning around in his chair again, Coach is biting her thumbnail, Furihata-kun still looks a little frightened from Mitobe's demonstration, Kawahara-kun is eyeing that article about getting people to like you in the Coach's magazine she left on the table,"_

"I wasn't reading _that_ article!" Aida shouted out, a blush on her face that matched Kawahara's.

" _Fukuda's been eyeing Kagami, whose expression has been getting more and more intense as time has gone on,"_ Kagami's eyes widened a bit, then turned to Fukuda with a glare, who jumped and looked away nervously. " _And Tsuchida is texting his girlfriend again."_ said boy blushed, quickly shoving his phone back into his pocket.

"What did I say about doing that, lover boy?!" Riko screeched as she slapped Tsuchida upside the head.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Tsuchida cried out. Then Furihata's eyes widen.

"Um, Izuki-senpai." he started, looking confused. "There are eight of us in here, but you only called out seven of us."

A shocked expression quickly replaced the proud one that Izuki had when he demonstrated his skill. " _Huh?_ "

That seemed to stop Riko in her punishing of Tsuchida as she looked confused. "Wait, what?"

"What?" asked Fukuda. "No. Who could he have forgotten? He mentioned everyone here."

"Excuse me, but I believe it was me."

 _ **Huuuuuuuhhhhh?!**_

"O-Oh, Kuroko-kun!" Furihata exclaimed. "Where did you go?"

"No where. I've been standing here this whole time." the light hair teen informed.

' _I completely forget he was here…'_ Aida thought to herself. ' _And Izuki didn't see him, t-that's impossible. How could he not have noticed him?'_

"W-well. Sorry about that, Kuroko-kun." she apologized.

"That's alright." he reassured with a blank expression.

"A-alright, Hyuuga-kun, why don't you demonstrate now so we can move on?" Aida suggested.

On screen, Hyuuga looked to be a bit shocked as well but at the Coach's order, he wiped the expression from his face. " _A-alright_." he agreed, stretching his arms across his chest and walking over to stand in front of a different dummy.

"Can anyone tell me what Hyuuga-kun's ability is?" Aida asked the group. This is usually a hard question, considering the variety of powers could be derived from an arm Youki, which Hyuuga wore.

"He's a Shooter, isn't he?" Kuroko finally offered. But maybe he's been answering Riko's questions the entire time and she just didn't notice…

"Yes, good job." she complimented. Well that was faster than she thought because—

"Isn't shooting an incredibly rare ability?" Kawahara asked.

Just as Riko opened her mouth to answer his question, a different voice spoke up instead.

"Not necessarily, no." Kuroko supplied. "Shooting is actually a very common ability, but the amount of people who can do so _well_ is very limited."

"T-that's correct." Aida responded, sounding a little awed. "You see, anyone can project their Akari energy out, but very few can actually control where it goes. There are many factors as to why this happens. Anyone have any ideas?" she asked.

"Lack of accuracy to begin with is a major reason." Kuroko answered once again, everyone in the room seeming to be shocked at his sudden desire to speak. "But mental state is is big part of it. If someone's head isn't in the right place or they're facing a lot of pressure, it could lead to ineffective shots."

Again, the room seemed to be awed.

"Where'd you learn all this, Kuroko?" Fukuda asked.

"Ah," Kuroko breathed out, seeming to realize that he had been talking a lot. "I've known a few..." he trailed off, looking away.

"Shooters?" Furihata asked. The light haired boy gave a slight nod, still not making eye contact.

' _He knew a_ few _of them?'_ was the collective thought.

" _Are we going to get this demonstration over with or not?"_ Hyuuga's impatient voice then rang over the speakers.

"Right! Sorry, Hyuuga-kun. You're good to go." Aida informed.

Hyuuga scoffed. " _I'm always ready to go…"_ he mumbled irritated.

"What was that?!" Riko snapped.

Hyuuga realized his mistake and quickly turned to the dummy, adjusting the Youki on his arm. " _I-I said I was waiting for your command, Coach!_ "

"Mm," Riko hummed. "that's what I thought you said."

The Freshmen were quickly learning not to cross their new Coach.

Hyuuga took a breath, raising his arm up in front of himself.

"Hyuuga's very good at acting under pressure." informed Tsuchida.

"We call him our Clutch Shooter!" exclaimed Koganei.

A vein bulged on the side of Hyuuga's head as the part of his Youki that was directly on his palm started to light up. " _I have to be,"_ he bit out. He lifted his arm up above his head and then pushed his palm down, a bright beam of light shooting from the palm, slamming into the dummy, causing it to start burning. " _especially if I have you idiots chatting it up in my ear!_ "

" _Hot shot, hotshot!"_

" _ **Die already, Izuki!**_ " the sound of another shot rang out over the speaker as well as a shout of alarm from the Eagle Eye.

" _You singed my shirt!_ "

" _I warned you!_ "

" _No you didn't! You just told me to die a bunch of times!"_

Aida sighed. "Alright, that's enough of a demonstration, boys." She opened up one of the draws and grabbed something inside, Kagami couldn't make out what. "Fukuda-kun and Kawahara-kun, you'll be staying here. Teach these freshmen the ropes, you two." she nodded to Koganei and Tsuchida, who both smiled and nodded back. "The rest of you First Years, follow me down to the training floor."

* * *

"Now the most important thing about your Youki," Aida announced to three boys standing in front of her. "is choosing the one that's best for you. Before that, though, please take an earpiece, boys. It'll help us to monitor you and keep in touch." she held out her hand with the small and sleek looking piece of equipment. Kagami and the other two boys each grabbed one placing them in their ears. Kagami then felt a sudden thrum go through his body.

Then Koganei's voice rang through his ear. " _Kagami's online."_ his voice informed.

" _So's Furihata._ " chimned in Tsuchida's voice. " _Hm. That's strange…_ " he said to himself.

"What is it?" Riko asked.

" _O-Oh, it's nothing. Probably just a glitch. Kuroko's online as well."_ he reassured.

Riko still wasn't completely convinced and was a bit curious as to what Tsuchida meant, but there were more important things now she supposed. "Furihata-kun!"

Said boy was startled but answered "Y-yes?"

"We'll be starting with you." Aida then gestured to to the various Youki that were lined up on the table behind her. "Take your pick."

"O-oh. I just pick anything?" the brunette questioned.

"Whatever feels best." Aida smiled back with a nod.

Furihata looked a little nervous to have this kind of responsibility, but his expression quickly morphed into one of determination. He walked up to the table, unsure of what to pick. He started to rub with right arm out of nervous habit, but then it hit him. His arm...Furihata reached for the Youki on the table that resembled Hyuuga's.

Aida gave a smile. Excellent. He figured it out on his own.

"This?" Furihata turned to Riko, looking for approval.

She gave an approving nod. "That's good. I can see you have the potential to be an excellent Shooter, Furihata-kun."

The First Year smiled broadly at this, but then he quickly frowned, looking away. "You see something I don't then..." he laughed nervously.

"Idiot!" Hyuuga reprimed, slapping Furihata upside the head, the brunette giving a cry of pain. "Of course she sees something that you don't! She's a Type B too, you know?"

"R-really?" Furihata asked, rubbing the sore side of his head.

"You bet!" Izuki confirmed. "She can asses someone and their abilities with just one look." he praised.

"That's amazing…" Furihata trailed off, looking to their Coach.

...who was currently staring at Kagami's legs with a bit of a horrified expression.

"What?" Kagami questioned, seeming to grow irritated under the Coach's gaze.

"N-no. It's nothing, just…" she suddenly looked up, squinting her eyes at Kagami in a scrutinizing manner. "What type of Youki did you use back in America, Kagami?" she asked.

Kagami's face scrunched up at this. "I don't know. We called them ' _vessels'_ over in America." he informed, slipping in the English word.

" _Vu-sils?"_ Koganei butchered the word.

"Yeah, sorta…" Kagami rubbed the back of his neck. "Anyway, I had a few. Two for my legs and one on my arm."

"You had three Youki?" Hyuuga inquired, sounding sceptic.

"I said I did, didn't I?" he snapped back.

"Watch your tone, freshman!" Hyuuga warned, the air growing thick around them.

"Calm down. Hyuuga-kun." ordered Aida. ' _That guy needs to learn to unwind every once in awhile…_ ' she sighed to herself. "I think we should have some leg Youki for you, Kagami-kun. We have plenty of arm ones."

Izuki looked through some of the equipment and pulled out the needed pieces. "Here they are." he handed them to Kagami, who quickly took them, bending down to fasten them to each limb. They appeared to be spheres, but once placed over the legs and pressed down on in the middle, the machine whirrs to life, bands quickly extended from the circle, wrapping around and fastening themselves to his calves. Kagami felt his leg muscles relax and then felt a boost of strength, radiating from his legs, start to pulse throughout his body. Izuki then handed him one for his arm and proceeded to fasten that in a similar manner. The Youki then thrummed to life, glowing a bright white. But then suddenly something Riko has never seen before happened.

The color of the light radiating from the center of each Youki changed.

It morphed from that pure white into a deep shade of red, yet still remained an impossible brightness.

If anyone was paying attention, they would have noticed Kuroko's eyes widen, then shine in something akin to realization. Or was it recognition?

" _What the...the light just changed?!_ " Koganei's voice rang.

"Huh?" the redhead breathed out. He looked down at his legs and arm with a strange look. "Don't they all do that?"

"N-no!" Hyuuga exclaimed.

"Oh." Kagami said smartly. "It's always been like that for me…" he trailed off, not sure what he was suppose to say.

Aida looked like she was deep in thought. ' _Could it be? Could he really be able to...No one but_ those _guys can do something like that. But...it may just be possible with this one…'_ Aida thought to herself.

"Kagami-kun," she started, getting the attention of the redhead once again. "There's something I would like to try out but first," she then turned her head until her vision was met with light blue. "Kuroko-kun, pick your Youki."

The sky blue eyes look at her and he looked as if he was about to protest, from the way his mouth was opening to form words, so Aida quickly reassured him. "It's okay, Kuroko-kun. Pick whichever feels right."

"Ah, but that's not–"

"What're you waiting for? Just pick one already." Hyuuga demanded, growing impatient. "I'm sure you've worked with plenty of these before at Teiko."

"Alright then." he seemed to agree. Kuroko looked apprehensively at each Youki on the table, as if unsure of which to pick. Finally, he settled on an arm Youki. He went to fasten it on his arm, pressing the button in the middle of the sphere until—

Something else Riko had never seen before happened. Again.

Nothing. The Youki didn't even light up.

"What the–" Furihata commented, dumbfounded.

"Must be faulty. Pick another, Kuroko." Hyuuga commanded.

"Ah, but–" Kuroko started but was ultimately cut off again.

"Here's one for your chest. You mustn't have picked the right one." Izuki suggested, handing him a different Youki. "Try this one."

"Um. Alright, but–" the boy couldn't finish his sentence again because Hyuuga was holding the Youki up to his chest and pressed the center to activate it, but again. Nothing.

"What's going on here…" Hyuuga sounded exasperated.

"Maybe if we–" Izuki started but was cut off.

"No, can we please continue?" the azure haired boy requested. "It'll be fine, I promise you." his gaze was then turned to Aida, and there was something in his eyes that was almost...desperate. "May we please do demonstrations." then the gaze was turned away, and Kagami was then met with a critical look. "I'm rather curious."

The room was then filled with an awkward silence when crimson and sky stared down each other.

' _What the hell is this guy's problem?!'_ rang out in Kagami's mind. Kagami would never admit it, but the calculating gaze made him nervous. Kuroko was again scrutinizing Taiga with a look that felt like it could almost see _inside_ of him. Like he was seeing Kagami's strengths and weaknesses. Like he was looking into his very being. "Look here–" he started rather menacingly, but was cut off by the Coach's voice.

"V-very well…" she agreed, though sounding rather unsure. However, there was nothing more she could think to say about the matter. Whenever Kuroko spoke to you with _that_ look, it was hard to come up with any arguments. "Then you, Furihata-kun, and Kagami-kun, prepare yourselves. You'll be going up against the Second Years."

* * *

 **Author: This was turning a bit long and I felt bad about making you guys wait, so I decided to slit this chapter up. Next chapter, we'll get some action! It's Second Years vs First Years.**

 **Also, whenever someone is talking over the comm/earpiece, it'll be in** _"quoted italics_ " **.**

 **So Youki are basically like mini pieces of technology that you place on a part of your body. Think of them like arm/leg braces, but smaller. Kinda like an exoskeleton.**

 **Please review and next chapter soon!**


	5. I Am A Shadow

After waiting through so many formalities and demonstrations, it was finally time for Kagami to show his stuff. Sure, the little blue haired midget did unnerve him a bit and that other kid seemed to be shaking so bad he looked like he was about to fall over, but that didn't matter. All that mattered to Kagami was that it was time to go. He needed to focus on the people standing in the line in front of him, not the ones standing next to him.

The Coach's voice, who had returned to the control room, flared to life over their commlinks. " _Now, this is going to be a simple game of dodgeball."_

"Dodgeball?" Kagami questioned skeptically.

" _It's an American game, Kagami-kun. You should be familiar with it."_ the Coach remarked.

He was, but _this_ setup had nothing to do with dodgeball. There were various obstacles set up throughout the training room. There were a lot of car and truck tires, various slabs of different looking metals, and other mismatched items.

" _Kuroko, Furihata, and Kagami are one team and Hyuuga, Izuki, and Mitobe are another."_ Tsuchida informed. " _Hyuuga's team will also have the assistance of Koganei and myself and Kagami's team will have the same help from Kawahara and Fukuda._

" _We'll be wearing our headsets which are soundproof, so there's no problem with us listening in on your strategies. We're all hooked up to two separate lines."_ Koganei chimed in.

" _The objective is to hit your opponents three times each and to be the last team standing. Get hit three times by Akari energy and you're out."_ Aida explained. " _Now the vests we've given you will absorb any damage that can be given from the attacks, but they also serve as monitors. Meaning, we'll be able to know how many times you've been hit, so no cheating!_

" _At the sound of my whistle, the game will begin. Any questions?"_

Furihata slowly raised his hand looking around trying to find a camera. "Uh, yeah. What—"

Suddenly a whistle sounded and chaos erupted in the training room.

Kagami went right for a shot at Hyuuga, but it seemed he was expecting this because the glasses clad teen quickly countered with a shot of his own that defused Kagami's.

"You think it'll be that easy, freshman?" the Captain asked irritatedly, raising his hand above his head and quickly retaliating with another shot. "Don't expect so little of your upperclassmen!" he shouted, another beam of white Akari energy shooting from his hand and moving at light speed towards Kagami. Thanks to his quick feet, Kagami was able to dodge, but the same couldn't be said about his teammate.

Furihata gave a yelp of surprise, rather than pain, as Hyuuga's beam slammed into his chest, the First Year not expecting Kagami to leave him unguarded like that. He fell to the ground, unintentionally letting out a shot of his own which shot out towards a metal slab, bouncing off and almost hitting Kagami.

"Watch it!" Kagami bit out to his teammate.

"S-Sorry!" Furihata apologized from his spot on the ground.

" _You guys, get your head in the game."_ Kawahara's voice rang out. " _The seniors are planning an attack, get some cover!"_ he yelled, noticing the Second Years were readying their Youki.

"Screw that!" Kagami scream out, firing his Youki yet again at the seniors, managing a hit to Izuki, who was expecting the freshman to take cover rather than shoot. Kagami grinned wide. See? He didn't need-

He was cut off as he was pushed backwards a few feet. He looked up to notice Mitobe had just finish doing another one of his chest attacks. Kagami growled in frustration and lifted his arm up, readying another shot, until he was shot once again by a beam from Hyuuga.

" _Kagami, that's twice!"_ Fukuda shouted over the comm. " _One more and you're out!"_ he warned.

"I know that!" he yelled back, getting ready to fire one of his red beams.

" _Then get to cover!_ " Kawahara sounded frustrated.

"It doesn't matter." he bit out, bringing his arm back and getting ready to fling it forward–

But he was quickly swept off his feet and yanked rather forcefully behind a metal slab.

Kagami blinked stupidly and sat up to see what had happened, only to see sky blue eyes staring right into his, only a few inches apart.

"It's pointless to fight by yourself." Kuroko stated, a disapproving frown on his face.

"What the–" Kagami started, but found himself not being able to finish his sentence. He wasn't really even sure what he was going to say.

" _Kuroko!"_ Fukuda exclaimed from over their earpieces.

"Hello." he simply said back.

"I forgot you were here…" Furihata admitted from a slab a few feet away from the one Kagami and Kuroko were closely tucked together behind.

"What have you been doing this whole time?!" Kagami shouted in confusion.

Kuroko blinked a few times. Then, he slowly lifted a finger to his lips, indicating for Kagami to be less loud. "Observing." he finally said.

"What the hell does that mean?!" the redhead questioned again.

Kuroko's bottom lip twitched and he moved the finger from his mouth over to Kagami's, who blinked down stupidly at the pale digit. "Kagami-kun is too loud." Kuroko stated. Kagami slapped the finger away, but Kuroko seemed unfazed."We should be using this time to plan. Izuki-senpai has undoubtedly figured our location out by now." Kagami then flinched as the slab they were behind shook after impact.

" _We need a plan. Fast._ " Kawahara announced. " _If Mitobe-senpai fires another shot, I'm not confident that hunk of junk will last."_

"I think I have an idea…" the bluenette trailed off.

"Really?" Furihata asked. "Let's hear it!" he smiled, eager for a chance to pull this game around, especially when they were losing so badly.

"Well…"

* * *

Aida was a little disappointed. Kagami's strength was a given, but he was far too reckless when fighting. He turned out to be a 'leap-before-you-look' kind of guy...

Her private commlink suddenly buzzed with an incoming call, she reached her hand up and tapped the right side of the equipment, flashing with a red light where she tapped it.

"Hello?" she answered.

" _Coach."_ Tsuchida's voice said over her earpiece. Next to her, she could see him turn in his seat to talk to her face to face. They'll still used the commlinks however, to keep the conversation private. " _There's something I've been meaning to tell you."_

Aida raised her eyebrow in curiosity. "What is it?" she asked.

" _Well, I didn't say anything at first because I thought it was just a glitch,"_ he started, turning back to the controls and pressing some buttons. " _But no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to go away._ " The health monitors for the First Years then appeared on screen and Aida squinted her eyes in confusion.

"Where are Kuroko-kun's Akari levels?" she asked.

" _That's just it,"_ Tsuchida started, sounding exasperated. " _The monitors aren't picking up any activity."_ he started pressing a few more buttons, a bar appearing over the model for Kuroko, starting at the head and then going down to his feet, performing a scan. " _I ran a bunch of scans and still, nothing."_

Aida narrowed her eyes. "What're you saying…?"

" _All his levels are reading as normal. Kuroko doesn't have a single trace of Akari energy in his body."_

* * *

Hyuuga sighed, wiping some sweat from his forehead. That Kagami was strong and Hyuuga was having a hard time keeping up. Luckily, he didn't seem to be too much of a team player. Hyuuga would make sure that it'd be the Type A's downfall.

Izuki was able to quickly figure out where the freshman was, his presence was too great to miss. After that, he didn't have a very hard time locating Furihata, what with how bad he was shaking.

"Kagami already has two shots." Hyuuga observed. "If he gets one more, it's basically game over." the bespectacled teen grinned victoriously. Furihata didn't stand a chance once the team lost Kagami.

"He can't stay there forever, but let's draw him out, Mitobe." Izuki suggested with a sly smirk.

The silent teen gave a nod, readying another attack when suddenly-

"Huuuuuuuuhhhhh!?" all three upperclassmen were shocked, for a ghost had just popped up from behind one of the metal slabs. Except it was a ghost. It was...

"K-Kuroko?" Hyuuga asked, still not yet recovered from the previous shock. They were expecting Kagami, if at all, to appear behind the slab, not the light haired First Year.

"Hello." the bluenette replied, seemingly unfazed by the reactions.

" _I completely forgot he was here!_ " exclaimed Koganei's voice over the seniors' commlink. He was suppose to be monitoring everything, for Tsuchida said he had to talk to the Coach about something.

"W-wait just a second!" Izuki intervened, seemingly nervous. "When did you get there? I only saw Kagami behind that slab!"

If Kuroko were one to show emotion, Hyuuga would have assumed that was a defensive pout that passed over the younger teens face. "I was here first." he informed.

" _What?!"_ Koganei's loud voice once again rung out. " _No way, I couldn't even pick him up on my monitors!"_

"No one's noticed you this entire time…?" Izuki trailed off in disbelief.

"I have a very weak presence." Kuroko simply said.

"We know that!" Hyuuga exclaimed. "That doesn't mean you should just disappear from the scans. It's science, you can't be undetected!" the Captain argued.

Kuroko then turned his gaze directly towards Hyuuga. "But I was."

"Impossible! You-"

"Captain." Kuroko suddenly cut in, throwing the Captain off guard. "Would you like to know a hobby of mine?"

"Huh?" was all the teen could really manage to respond with.

"Magic tricks." Kuroko continued on anyway, even without a proper response. The seniors really didn't know what to say. "Watch carefully." Kuroko instructed as he lifted up one of his hands, showing his palm to the other males. He turned his palm back to face himself, his pale fingers then started to squirm around in a strange manner until suddenly, a yen coin appeared out of his once empty palm.

" _Amazing!"_ Kaganei admired.

"How did you…" Izuki trailed off. He's never seen that trick executed so perfectly in person before.

"It's a simple trick that utilizes a simple concept." Kuroko began, sounding as if he were an instructor. "It's called misdirection." he informed, placing the coin back in between his fingers. "First you get your audience's attention," his fingers once again moving in a strange, almost mesmerizing pattern. "And then you perform your trick." and just like that, the coin was once again gone.

Before the seniors could comment on his trick once more, all three on the court were thrown forward, their monitors flashing, informing of a hit.

"W-What the-" Hyuuga started, turning around and looking for the assailant, but not finding anyone behind them.

"As I said," Kuroko calm voice once again started, gaining Hyuuga and the other seniors' attention. "Misdirection." Suddenly, the senior were shocked to see a mysterious glint in his eye, the same as a cat who has caught it's prey. "It's really a simple trick."

Yet again, the seniors were thrown forward with another set of three attacks from behind their backs, their monitors flashing.

" _T-That's two hits each!?"_ Koganei sounded to be in utter disbelief and confusion.

"How-what-?" Izuki muttered looking around wildly until he was for the third time hit, but this time not thrown forward.

"Yes!" Furihata exclaimed from behind the Eagle Eye, revealing himself to be the assailant.

" _Furihata! Your cover!"_ Fukuda yelled over the freshmen commlink.

The brunettes eyes widened further in realization. "A-Ah, sorry!" he exclaimed back, ducking back down behind the metal slab he was once hidden by.

" _It's too late now!"_ Kawahara shouted at his classmate in exasperation.

"Furihata?" Izuki said in confusion. "When did he get over on our side?" he asked, readying a shot at Furihata's hiding place.

"No, you idiot!" Hyuuga tried intervening, before-

Izuki was throw to the ground, his monitor beeping loudly, signalling his elimination. He pushed himself up, looking dazed and shocked.

"More importantly-" Hyuuga started, turning arounding a letting out a shot as a red beam made it's way towards him. Hyuuga just barely managed to defuse it. He was then met with the visibly irritated face of Kagami. "When did _he_ get over here!"

" _What's going on?_ " the Coach's voice questioned over their commlink, apparently done with her conversation with Tsuchida.

" _Izuki's out!"_ Koganei informed the female. " _The freshmen have managed a stealth attack!"_

" _What?"_ Aida sounded surprised.

" _It was all Kuroko-kun._ " Fukuda voice seemingly oozed with pride.

It seemed that the control room cut off the private lines, for Aida answered back with a " _Huh?_ "

" _He hasn't done anything..."_ Tsuchida trailed off.

" _Oh, contraire!"_ Kawahara said with a besmirching tone. " _He planned everything!"_

* * *

 **FLASHBACK**

* * *

"Misdir-what?!" Kagami onced again shouted in confusion.

Kuroko gave the redhead a poor attempt at a glare. "Misdirection." he repeated.

" _Wait. You mean that thing magicians use in card tricks?_ " Fukada asked over the commlink.

"Yes." Kuroko confirmed.

"What the hell are card tricks go-" Kagami was cut off as Kuroko jammed his elbow into the Type A's gut from his position next to him. "Why you little-"

"What do you mean, Kuroko-kun?" Furihata asked from his position a few feet away from his teammates.

Kuroko was just about to further explain when Fukuda's voice suddenly chimed in " _Wait! I think I get it!_ _We get the seniors attention focused somewhere else, and when they're not looking, we attack, right?"_

"Yes." the bluenette approved with a nod.

" _We can have Kagami strike 'em with a sneak attack!"_ Kawahara suggested. " _Do you think you can hit all three of them, before they notice, Kagami?"_ he asked.

"Huh? Oh, uh. Yeah. I can do it." the redhead replied, losing his intense expression.

"Okay, I see, I see..." Furihata spoke, looking contemplative. "But how will we draw their attention away?"

Before the others could suggest ideas, Kuroko piped up once again with "Please leave it to me."

* * *

 **END FLASHBACK**

* * *

"While you were too busy paying attention to shorty, we made our move!" Kagami shouted, shooting another red beam of Akari energy at Mitobe, who barely dodged. The impact it made with the scrap metal behind the tall teen did throw him back a few inches, however.

"Please don't call me that." the bluenette requested, once again alerting the room to his presence. Hyuuga quickly shot out a beam of his own at the bluenette before he had the chance to do anything. Kuroko's eyes widened a bit, but he didn't move and inch. Just as the white beam was about to slam into him, another beam, this a deep red, hit the oncoming shot and defused it.

"Idiot. If you're going to talk, at least do something!" Kagami shouted, looking annoyed. "Don't just stand there when you're about to get hurt." he reprimed.

"Kagami-kun did not give me a chance to do anything." the bluenette seemingly pouted.

"It was inches from you and you stood still!" the redhead argued.

"You guys!" Furihata shouted. "Calm down or-" the brunette was cut off as he was once again shot in the chest, the monitor giving a droning beeping sound.

" _Furihata!"_ both Fukuda and Kawahara exclaimed disappointingly.

" _Furihata-kun is out!"_ Aida announced. Said brunette looked shocked, but the expression was quickly replaced with one of embarrassment.

"S-sorry!" he quickly apologized. "Kuroko, Kagami, do your best!" he cheered on as he joined Izuki on the sidelines.

Hyuuga, who threw the shot at Furihata, was growing annoyed. _How dare these freshmen think they were so clever!_

Mitobe launched another attack at Kagami, who had to use a good amount of effort to try to block the beam. ' _Damn, this guy is strong!'_

Kagami was too wrapped up in defusing the attack, that he didn't realize that Hyuuga was preparing to deliver Kagami's finishing blow.

Kawahara notice this and shouted " _Kagami, watch out!"_ he warned. They couldn't lose their most valuable player!

Kagami turned around just in time to see-

* * *

The monitors in the control room suddenly started going crazy. All present jumped in startlement. "What's going on?" Aida demanded to know.

Tsuchida looked pale. "K-Kuroko's Akari levels...they suddenly went thru the roof."

Aida's face dropped. "But you said…"

"I know what I said but-"

"What the heck?!" Koganei exclaimed, pointing to the one of the big screens. "How is that...that's not…"

Before anyone could question what Koganei was now talking about, they followed his finger to the screen it was pointing to.

* * *

"W-what just-" Izuki questioned, not sure about what he just saw.

"M-my shot. It…" Hyuuga eyes trailed to the smoking piece of metal off to the side. "It...changed direction?"

Kagami blinked stupidly. He should be out. That shot totally should have hit him, it was coming right towards him so why…

His eyes trailed down to the figure in front of him, holding both hands out in front on himself. "K-Kuroko?" he asked in shock.

The bluenette craned his head back to meet Kagami's bewildered expression. "Yes?" was the response.

"W-What did...Did you just…" Kagami wasn't quite sure about what he wanted to say.

"Kagami-kun. Please attempt to not be so reckless." the pale teen sounded like a scolding parent.

"A-Ah, yeah. Okay." Kagami wasn't quite sure why he was agreeing either. Kagami was then shocked by the next thing the smaller boy did. Kuroko gave him a soft smile. ' _What?_ '

"Kagami-kun has a team to look out for him, so please do not attempt to fight all your battles by yourself." Kuroko admonished, turning his head back to Hyuuga and giving a determined look. "You handle Mitobe-senpai and I'll do my best to fend off Captain." the boy ordered.

"Yeah." Kagami agreed once again, turning around to face a shocked looking Mitobe, so that Kuroko and him were now standing back to back. Kagami still wasn't sure as to what was happening.

"How did you deflect my shot?" Hyuuga asked the younger boy facing him. "It should have at least defused, it shouldn't have... _moved_!" the upperclassman sounded very confused.

"I am a shadow." the pale teen informed aloofly.

"What?" now Hyuuga was really confused.

Mitobe seemed as if he too was trying to make sense of what Kuroko said, so Kagami took his chance and shot at the upperclassman. Luckily, there was impact this time. Mitobe was flung back as his monitor droned with a deep beep.

" _Mitobe's out..."_ Koganei informed, trailing off in disbelief.

Kagami smirked triumphantly and turned around to stand side by side with Kuroko. His attention was then gained by Kuroko.

"Kagami-kun," the teen started, head bowed. He seemed to be twisting his wrists in an attempt to loosen them up. "When I give the signal, no matter where I am, please fire a shot at me."

"Huh?" Kagami question, giving a skeptic look. "What do you mean by-"

"Please." the bluenette requested looking up at the redhead with determined eyes. "Just do it?"

Kagami was thrown off by the expression but nevertheless agreed. "Yeah, s-sure." he nodded.

Kuroko gave another small smile, once again confusing Kagami, and gave a nod of his own. "Then prepare yourself." he instructed.

Hyuuga gritted his teeth. Now these freshmen were really pissing him off! "That's it! I had enough of your-" before he could finish, the whole building was then stunned into silence. As clearly, Kuroko figure seemed to grow darker and darker. It looked as if he were being surrounded by shadows, until suddenly, the boy disappeared.

' _ **WHAAAAAAAAAATTTTT?!**_ '

"Where did he...how did he…" Hyuuga didn't know what to say. He looked terrified, because he was standing directly in front of Kuroko. How could someone just...vanish? He looked to Kagami who looked equally confused and terrified. "Where is he!" Hyuuga demanded to know.

" _I-I don't know!"_ Tsuchida stuttered out over the comm. " _The monitors aren't getting anything!"_

" _What about his Akari levels?"_ Aida pressed.

" _They vanished just as soon as they appeared!"_ Koganei informed. " _They only flashed on screen for a second."_

Kagami looked around himself confused. ' _What just happened? And where did Kuroko go?'_

Kagami's thoughts were interrupted as Kuroko suddenly appeared, right before his eyes. He was now in a completely different spot than before, however. He was now standing a few feet behind Hyuuga off to the side. The Captain himself was still on edge after watching the boy vanish, so he didn't notice Kagami staring at the suddenly reappeared boy behind him. Kuroko then raised his hands up, looking as if he was about to catch a ball. He gave Kagami a curt nod.

Kagami had so many questions he wanted to ask but he pushed them aside. Those could wait for later. Now, they had a game to win.

Kagami flung his arm back and his dormant Youki flared to life as he shot a beam to Kuroko. Hyuuga looked alarm for a second and was about to counter until he noticed that the shot was going to miss. "What do you think you're-" he started to question.

However, he didn't see what Kagami and everyone else in the control room noticed. The red light headed towards Kuroko and just as it was about to make contact with the fragile looking boy, the bluenette seemingly smacked the ray of light away from himself. As soon as Kuroko made contact with the light, the colored quickly changed from the deep, bright red to an appearingly faded, light blue.

In the control room, the monitors once again flared to life for the second Kuroko touched the beam of light, but just as quickly became blank with no activity as the beam traveled away from Kuroko and towards the Captain.

Hyuuga was thrown to the ground with the power of the combined attack. His monitor flared to life with a low beep.

" _T-The…_ " Aida's voice started, sounding to be a mixed of horrified, shocked, and amazed. " _T-The freshmen win._ "

* * *

 **Author:**

 **Sorry for the wait on this chapter! I had testing this week. (TT_TT)**

 **Next chapter, Kuroko explains (sorta) and a deal is made!**


	6. Error

Immediately after the game was played and won, all anyone could do was stare flabbergasted at the source of all their many recent heart failures; one Kuroko Tetsuya. The group didn't have time to gawk for long however, because sudden and rapid footsteps could be heard pounding, echoing throughout the gym. Kuroko was then pulled to the ground and put into an inescapable hold.

"What the hell was that, huh freshman?!" Aida shrieked, sitting on top of Kuroko's back, putting him in a Boston Crab hold. The First Year gave pained gasps, reaching for his teammates to help. However, they all thought better than to interfere with Riko...

"You think you can get away with lying to me?! You said you were a Type A but you had no Akari energy in your body, not any! Only when you touched someone else's beam. And what the hell was that, huh?! How did you just smack them out of the way like they were balls?! No one can do that! And what's with that disappearing act of yours, huh? Huh?!" as the brunette went on, her grip on the younger boy started to slowly get more and more tight and crushing. Hyuuga finally deemed it necessary to step it, less Aida actually ends up killing the poor freshman (his face was starting to match his hair, for crying out loud) and then they'll never know what happened.

"Riko, give the kid some air! Then maybe he'll answer." his command seemed calm and authoritative, but really he was very weary. Hopefully the female was more curious than angry.

"Hm?" her eyes then locked onto to Hyuuga's, then turned back to the struggling freshman (whose movement was pretty much stopping all together now) below her and then released her grip.

The bluenette, once released, gave weak gasps, trying to allow the air to once again flood into his lungs. "I'm sorry…" he started, out of breath. "But I didn't lie to you, Coach. I am a Type A."

Aida glared. "That's not what the monitors read."

The rest of the crew that was gathered in the control room had made there way down to the rest of the group by now, all curious about the situation.

"She's right." Tsuchida informed, looking a bit worn out. "The monitors showed no Akari energy. There's not even an ounce of your own Akari in you, Kuroko-kun."

Everyone in the room, who didn't already know this, looked deeply surprised. Kuroko however, seemed unfazed.

"Of course there's not." he simply stated, after the pause.

"What do you mean 'Of course there's not'?!" Hyuuga yelled, slapping the First Year upside the head. Kuroko looked a little stunned and started to rub the side of his head that was hit.

"I never said I was exposed to Akari energy." Kuroko lamented.

There was a pregnant pause in the room once again as everyone thought on this. What could that possibly mean? If he wasn't exposed to Akari energy, then how…

Suddenly, an idea struck Aida. If she was right, well...it'd certainly be a first. But she was willing to bet her position that she was correct.

"Kuroko-kun and Hyuuga-kun, come with me to the infirmary." Aida commanded. Both teens seemed as if they wanted to question her order, but otherwise didn't open their mouths. "Tsuchida-kun and Koganei-kun. You go with the others into the control room. There's something I need to confirm." the two Second Years gave their signs of affirmation. "But first…" her eyes scanned the group until, "Kagami-kun."

The redhead looked surprised. "Uh, yes?" he asked waringly.

"You'll be coming with us to the infirmary as well." she ordered.

"Huh? Why?" Kagami asked. He couldn't understand how he was possibly involved in all this…

"Because," Riko started with a smirk, placing her hands on her hips. "we need a frame of reference."

* * *

"Um…" Kagami started, unsure of what was happening. "so what exactly are we doing?"

Aida had just finished strapping various pieces of equipment to various parts of Kagami's body. There was a silver band across his head, one resting over his chest placed like a strange medal, one wrapped around his waist like a belt, other silver bands were around each of his forearms and wrists and, in the same fashion, there were some around his thighs and ankles. Kuroko was similarly clad. And they were both nearly naked, sporting only their boxes. Both boys seemed a little uncomfortable in their own right, Aida observed.

"These are sensors, Kagami-kun." Aida informed, walking over to one of the screens in the room and pressing some buttons. Then a feed of the control room popped up. "Each sensor is designed to monitor the Akari levels in each region of your body. Koganei-kun, start Kagami-kun's scan."

" _Roger!"_ Koganei beamed over the feed, and this time the others could see his face for the feed also included video. Off screen, some typing could be heard and Kagami suddenly felt a thrum travel all throughout his body. On one of the other screens in the room, a silhouette of a figure appeared, Kagami's name listed above. The silhouette flashed up, various parts of it's body glowing a bright red.

"See this?" Aida asked, referring to the various glowing spots on screen. "These indicate the levels of Akari energy in your body and where the physical connections are strongest." she informed, pointing to where the light faded into deeper reds, at Kagami's legs and arms.

"As expected, it's very impressive. There are strong connections all over." Hyuuga remarked from his spot at one of the chairs in the room.

"Mhm." Riko hummed. "For Type As, connections can form in multiple spots and there's the potential to be efficient in all categories. Shooting, sensing, speed, agility…Kagami-kun is the epitome of a Type A."

Kagami himself seemed to blush slightly at this, hardening his face into a glare. "I told you I was, why'd you need to check?"

"I said before, for comparison. Do you not listen, Bakagami?" she asked, annoyed.

' _Bakagami?'_ he questioned mentally.

"Now for Kuroko-kun. Tsuchida-kun."

" _On it."_ Tsuchida sounded, as typing was heard off screen once again.

On the screen, a silhouette with Kuroko's name over it appeared.

' _ **Scanning**_ _**. . .**_ ' popped up on the screen and it seemed to load for quite some time until…

' _ **ERROR.**_

 _ **No AKARI energy detected.**_ ' flashed on screen.

" _Scans came up empty again._ " Tsuchida informed with a frown.

"As expected…" Hyuuga mumbled to himself. "So you were lying?" he now directed at Kuroko. Before the bluenette could respond however, Aida spoke up once again.

"Tsuchida-kun. Could you run a scan for Yami energy then?" Aida asked. Something in Kuroko's eyes seemed to flash at this, but it went unseen.

Tsuchida looked surprised. " _What for?_ " he asked.

"Why's it matter?" Hyuuga questioned with a scoff. "What do his feelings have to do with it?"

"Because I don't think the Yami energy is just effecting his emotions, Hyuuga-kun." Aida stated.

"What're you implying? There's no such thing as a-"

"Tsuchida-kun, is the set up ready?" Aida asked, ignoring Hyuuga's line of questioning.

" _Yes, it's ready."_ there were a few clicks heard. " _Initiating scan...now."_ there was a final press and then the room waited.

There was an immediate reaction. Kuroko did something no one had seem him do; he twitched.

' _ **Scanning. . .**_ ' the screen read once again. And then-

' _ **WARNING**_

 _ **High levels of YAMI energy detected.**_

 _ **Immediate care or AKARI treatment advised.**_ ' bleeped across the screens with various warning signs.

The silhouette representing Kuroko was filled in almost completely with a murky blue, almost light grey, color.

"That's…" Hyuuga started, both looking and sounding alarmed, for he rose up from his chair.

Kagami gave the smaller teen an alarmed look of his own. If normal people had this much Yami energy in their system, well they'd be dead. Kuroko, for the most part, looked fairly fine. His eyes appeared to be strangely cloudy however, he looked a bit dazed. Though it seemed that Kagami wasn't the only one to notice this, for the Coach quickly ordered for the scan to stop. Kuroko's eye instantly cleared and he appeared just fine once again.

"Are you alright, Kuroko?" Hyuuga asked, not being able to hide his concern.

The bluenette looked over to the dark haired teen and gave a small nod. "Yes, I'm fine, Captain. The scan dazed me a little, I suppose…" he trailed off, sounding as if he didn't want to continue the subject.

"Kuroko-kun," Aida started, her tone now taking on one of a concerned mother-type. "When you say you were Exposed, it was to Yami energy?"

"That's correct." Kuroko confirmed.

" _It's always been like this? You've always been..._ infused _with Yami energy?"_ Tschida questioned, his own concerned-senpai tone showing.

"No. I was Exposed as a child. It wasn't until Teiko did I become, ah, ' _infused_ '." he informed, scratching his cheek. He seemed as if he really didn't wish to continue the line of questioning now. Aida figured if any of them pressed on, he'd find a way to evade the truth. She also felt it was something very...personal.

" _So, Kuroko._ " Izuki began over the feed. " _What exactly are your abilities?_ "

"Ah. Well, I can deflect Akari beams, but I'm not immune so if I don't time it right, I can be hit." he informed, once again looking off. "I'm not very strong either, so getting hit is actually quite straining."

"What about that invisibility act you pulled?" Hyuuga questioned.

"I can manipulate the light around me. Sort of. It's more like pushing the light away, I suppose. I end up making myself too dark for the visible eye."

"Hm." Aida looked contemplative. "So by pushing the light away, it's easier for the Yami energy to envelope you. Is that right?"

" _Like an invisibility cloak! But of shadows!_ " Koganei exclaimed.

Kuroko's attention seemed to be drawn back at the reference. "Yes, I suppose." he said in a tone that seemed he acknowledged the humor in it.

" _How'd you figured all this out, Kuroko-kun?_ " Izuki asked.

A dark look once again passed over the light haired teen's face. "Teiko was very thorough." was all he offered.

Aida was about to question it, until the time displayed on the screen caught her eyes. "Crap! My dad is going to kill me!" she exclaimed, startling everyone. "I didn't know it was so late. Training is dismissed. Meet back here for morning practice tomorrow at 8, everyone! And don't be late!"

* * *

Kagami made his way over to a vacant table in the fast food restaurant, sighing as he dropped his stuff down carelessly. This Maji Burger seemed to be the closest he could get to a Mc-y D's, here in Japan. He unwrapped one of the many sandwiches he ordered and had to stop himself from groaning in satisfaction at that first bite. He was starved and the taste wasn't too bad either, nothing like in America, but still good either way.

As Kagami silently ate his dinner, he mulled over what had happened that day. Which is kinda shocking for Kagami because he's not usually one to mull things over.

There were the team members, who were all strong and impressive in their own right (not nearly as strong as him though) and the Coach, who seemed to be a very natural leader. It was a bit strange at first, what with her being so young and a girl at that, but it quickly ceased to bother him. After all, he's not unfamiliar with authorize females.

Then lastly there was...he turned his head away from the window, furrowing his brows. Just thinking about what that guy did was just so...so...he was at a lost for words.

"Amazing."

"Yeah, amazing." he agreed.

….wait.

"It's amazing how you can eat so much." Kuroko spoke once again, looking across the table at Kagami with those blank eyes.

"W-What?!" he shrieked loudly, alerting the rest of the diners, causing others to give him stares.

"Be careful, Kagami-kun. You voice is both deep and loud, you're bound to make a scene if you raise your voice." the smaller boy warned.

"Why are you sitting with me?" he asked looking around the room. "If people see us together, they might think we're friends."

Kuroko's head tilted to the side slightly. "This is my usual hangout." he informed before raising up his cup and taking a small sip. "Besides, I was here first."

"Why're you pulling that invisibility crap here, then?" the redhead questioned.

"I'm not. My presence is just low."

"Why don't you just go somewhere else?"

"No. I enjoy this place's vanilla shakes." the smaller informed, taking a sip from the straw once again, looking quite serene.

Kagami sighed, before picking up one of his burgers. "Here." he said as he tossed the sandwich to the other boy. Kuroko looked a little shocked but caught it.

"Anyone who can pull off moves like that deserves more than just a shake for dinner." he reasoned.

Kuroko gave a soft smile at this. "Thank you very much." he replied, for both the food and the compliment.

* * *

"Your powers are pretty cool, you know?" Kagami suddenly said after the two were walking in silence for quite a bit now. After they finished eating, it turned out they lived similar ways, so they ended up walking together.

"Ah, thank you." the bluenette replied. "But it's Kagami-kun's abilities that are impressive. I've never even heard of a Type A outside of the Generation of Miracles before."

There's that name was again. "Kuroko," Kagami started, gaining the other boys attention as they walked. "You knew the other Generation of Miracles, right?" he asked.

"Yes." Kuroko confirmed. "Once upon a time, I did."

This got Kagami curious. "Why'd you all separate to go to different schools? You were the most powerful team to exist in Japan. Or so I've been told." he tried finishing nonchalantly.

Kuroko looked at Kagami for a moment, then turned his gaze away once again. "Disagreements amongst ourselves, mostly." he informed distantly.

The light for the corner they were standing on changed and Kuroko made his way across the street. Kagami followed closely. "The Generation of Miracles," Kuroko continued spontaneously. "They've all changed. They were once good people, but they were soon unmatchable in strength, leading to their minds and judgements to become clouded."

Kuroko stopped speaking at this point, as if he was deeply pondering something. Kagami wasn't sure what, but he did know what he wanted to say. "What a load of crap." This seemed to shock the smaller boy for he looked up at Kagami. " ' _Unmatchable'_? Anyone who lets power get to them is an idiot. I can't believe people think they're all that. It pisses me off." he growled, the bluenette raised an eyebrow at him. "I guess someone's just gonna have to knock 'em off their thrones." he proposed with a vicious, toothy grin.

Kuroko stared at Kagami for a few more moments until a similar (though much less noticeable) determined glint sparked in his eyes. "Then I decided as well." the boy then stopped walking in entirety, prompting Kagami to do the same. "I am a shadow. My abilities aren't very flashy and I need someone else's assistance in order to actually do some damage." he informed, looking at the ground with a small glare, as if he was spiteful of this fact. He then raised his head so that the two teens were eye to eye. "But with the help of a strong light, I have the opportunity to make a difference. That's why I will help Kagami-kun with his goal to defeat the Generation of Miracles. I'll be the shadow to your light that becomes the best in Japan."

Kagami was a little taken aback by this. "What makes you think I need your help?" he questioned bitterly.

"Because where Kagami-kun is now, power-wise, you wouldn't even reach their feet." he deadpanned.

"O-Oi." he warned with an annoyed aura. "You better-"

"The Generation of Miracles forgot how to work as a team, which is the reason as to why they fell apart." Kuroko explained. "Teamwork, I believe, is the key to defeating them. It's their one weakness."

Kagami withheld his next retort and took a moment to think. He hated relying on others. Why would he have to when he could just do everything himself? But this plan, it...it seemed as if it could work. And maybe there was a part deep inside of him that wanted to work with someone? Wanted to have a partner to rely on and vice-versa. ' _I guess it's settled then…'_

"Alright." he finally agreed. "We'll bring the Miracles down. Together." Kagami decided, holding out his fist to the smaller boy.

Kuroko, for his part, looked a little shocked at this gesture, but the expression was soon gone from his face and was replaced by a small smile. "Yes." the bluenette approved, bumping his fist with the other boy's.

* * *

The sun had gone down a few hours ago, but Riko was still up. She had a lot of work to do after all. First she had to finish all the necessary paperwork that the school required. Safety agreements, warrants, etc...all quite dull, it all took around maybe two hours to complete. Next she took a break and planned some workout regimens for the team. Nothing fancy, just some basic muscle development and hand-eye coordination training. Then Riko had to run some background checks for all of the first years.

Furihata and Fukuda checked out well. They both had pretty average grades, with the expectations of a few classes in which they were really good in. Kawahara has had a few detentions before. Mostly for talking in class or passing notes. Kagami turned out to be the most troublesome. He had quite a few detentions on his record, both from while he was in America and Japan. Mostly they were from lashing out at teachers (they'll have to fix his attitude problem…) and falling asleep in class. His grades were pretty poor as well, they'll have to keep an eye on them to make sure they wouldn't get too low, or else they'd be forced to make him quit the team. The freshmen this year may turn out to be a hassle, but in the end, Aida was sure it'd be worth it.

Riko gave a yawn and a stretch. ' _What time is it now…?_ '

"Working hard?" asked a rough, groggy voice.

Riko nearly jumped three feet in her chair, and quickly turn to meet the face of her father, Aida Kagetora.

"Papa!" she shrieked. "Don't just sneak up on me like that!"

"The door was opened, I called your name out in the hall and you didn't respond. I figured you must've been thinking." the older male with straggly brown hair informed.. "Stuff for your club?" he drawled as he peered over her shoulder, referring to the papers.

Riko pushed up her skewed reading glasses as she let out a sigh. "Yes. I managed to get the bulk of the work done. Now all that's left if to get the freshmen background checks done."

"You shouldn't be working so hard late at night. It's bad for the skin."

Riko gave a breathy laugh. "I know, I know. I'm just wrapping up. Luckily it wasn't like last year where I was starting from scratch with a whole roster. We only have five freshmen this year."

Kagetora remembered _that_ time. His beautiful baby girl nearly worked herself half to death for those no good teenage boys. In all honesty though, his distaste for the kids was most likely caused by the fact that they were all indeed a group of _teenage boys_ , whom she decided to spend so much of her time around. But she was extremely dedicated and intelligent (she got that from her mother) and had a sharp tongue and short temper (which would most likely be from him, and he couldn't be prouder). She more than well knows how to take care of herself. Still, he is her father and she has to remember to rely on him for somethings. Speaking of which…

"Five? There are only four names checked off." Kagetora informed, looking at the roster on her desk.

"Huh?" she questioned dumbly and immediately returned her attention back towards her list. What did she-' _Oh. Of course…_ '

"M-My bad," she laughed. "This will be the last one before I head to bed." she promised.

Kagetora sighed. "Alright." he agreed, straightening his posture, letting out a grunt as his back gave a crack. "Let me know if you need anything before then. Goodnight~." he called walking to the door and closing it gently.

"Goodnight, Papa!" Riko called back, quickly turning back to her computer and pulling up the flash drive that Takeda-sensei (their club advisor) happily gave to her that held a copy of basic student transcripts. She quickly typed up " **Kuroko, Tetsuya** " and pressed enter. She found the link to his page quite easily and clicked on it, reading through the summary.

' _Pretty good...average grades...no detentions or tardies...that's good...on the library committee…'_ All in all his high school transcript was pretty average, but that doesn't mean there's nothing hidden deeper. ' _If you wanna see the good stories, you gotta get past the front page'_ she recalled her mother once telling her (that was of course in regards to a newspaper, but Riko believes it to be a phrase of many uses).

She clicked on the link that would take her directly to his middle school transcript and waited for a moment for it to load until-

" **No data available** " read across the screen.

"What?" she asked herself, quickly trying to reload, but only ended up with the same results. There was plenty of logical explanations as to why his data wasn't entered, but Riko couldn't stop this unnerving feeling that something was up. Before she jumped to too many conclusions, she checked his elementary school files, but again was met with the same words.

" **No data available** "

It was at this point that Riko was feeling anxious, rather than unnerved. She quickly turned to a search engine and tried searching his name. She narrowed down the search as specifically as possible and still, nothing. Riko ran her hand across her face and under her glasses. What was going on…? How could a kid just not exist? There's no records of a Kuroko Tetsuya existing before high school.

Was it just because Riko was tired and she wasn't getting enough sleep? It had been a long day. Maybe she should just check out for the night and-

Wait. That was it! It could be a long shot, but it may just work. Faster than she's ever seemed to type before, Riko found the websites for each of their local libraries in town and manually search their card holder informations. Every searched seemed to be turning up empty until finally she found something. A "Kuroko Tetsuya" had a card with the Toritsu Public Library and the card activity stated it was just in used this morning, sometime before school would have started.

Riko quickly devised a planned that would hopefully help start answering some of her many question regarding the mysterious bluenette boy with a deadpan expression and broken eyes.

She pulled out her phone and sent out a quick group text with clear instructions.

* * *

 **Author: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Any questions, don't be afraid to ask and please review!**

 **Okay, so first, in this story school has been going on for about a month now, at least a few weeks, so the fact that Kuroko has no files is a little alarming, especially when you consider they start entering stuff before school starts. The club recruitment fair was held about 2 weeks into school.**

 **Another thing is that Kagami and Kuroko's close friendship is going to take less time to develop only because I don't want it to take forever, lol. They're gonna have some bumps first, but soon they'll just fall into an easy friendship. I've always believed that their relationship was very natural~.**

 **And finally, I'm not too sure about the status of Riko's mother? I can't remember if I've ever actually heard anything official about her living status. A lot of fans believe she's dead, but I don't think anything has ever been confirmed? Correct me if I'm wrong. But for this story she's no longer living. But Kagetora is obviously still in love with her, which melts my heart. If you go to KNB wiki and check out Kagetora's trivia, he mentions his ideal woman is his wife, how f-ing cute! (They were also high school sweethearts, slay me. And Genta, Kaijo's coach, was in a love triangle with Riko's parents, asdfhjkf.)**

 **Next chapter: Seirin tries to get rid of some of the mystery surrounding their phantom player and in turn learn more about what happened at Teiko. And then, a new arrangement is proposed.**


	7. Pretty Good Chemistry

Of course, not for her lack of trying, all the Second Years (whom Riko sent her message to) try asking her about it once she arrives at the gym. She then proceeds to whack them all on the head with her paper fan before they can say anything to tip off the freshmen. She simply tells them to keep their mouths shut and that they'll know everything the need to know when she's done with the First Years. She also makes them run a few extra laps for deliberately ignoring her instructions. Honestly, they should know better…

"So, what're we doing in here, Coach?" Fukuda asks after he and the other freshmen are lead into an empty classroom and told to sit down. "Aren't we supposed to be training with the upperclassmen?"

"Yeah, shouldn't we be learning the ropes and stuff?" Kawahara now remarked from his spot in the desk behind Furihata.

"Though I appreciate your mental readiness, there are still a few things you all need to be educated on." Riko replied with a soft smile. The kohai were so cute with their desire to start training with the team!

She held her hands behind her back and started pacing in a line, keeping her eyes on each of the freshmen boys. "Now, can anyone tell me what exactly happens during an Excavation?" A hand tentatively raised into the air. "Yes, Furihata-kun!"

"U-Um. Well, isn't it when an Orb appears, teams go after it? Oh, and if more than one team reaches it at the same time, they fight, right?"

"Hm, sorta." Aida hummed. "Akari Orbs have this strange quirk where they'll only allow themselves to be taken by certain people. Many speculate it's chooses whichever team it deems worthy."

Kawahara raises his brow, but he asks his next question with a tone of uncertainty. "You talk about it as if it's a living thing…" he trailed off.

Aida frowned slightly, scratching her chin. . "Yes, well many believe that the Orbs are somewhat sentient."

"Y-You, mean they're alive?" Fukuda asked with a disbelieving tone.

Aida gave a slight nod. "Mm, in a way."

The room was filled with shocked silence as the boys tried to digest this knowledge. "That's...kinda rad." Kawahara finally offered.

Aida had to stop herself from snorting, she managed to contain anything but a small humorful huff. "In any case, that's why training and having a strong team is important. It's a competition of both brains and brawn. Think of it as impressing a girl." Furihata seemed to perk up at that for some reason. Riko smirked. ' _Duly noted._ '

The female coach then turned to one of the TV screens and turned it on, picking up a remote and gesturing with it. "You're about to see what happens when two Excavation teams reach an Orb at the same time." Riko stated as she pressed play.

On the screen, there was an aerial view of a city street, a bright glowing object doing a better job of lighting up the neighborhood than the streetlights were.

"Is that an Orb?" Fukuda asks, having never seen one in person before.

"Yes." Aida confirmed. "Watch closely." she instructed.

In the corner of the screen, a group of five people could be seen running into the frame. There was no audio, and the quality of the video wasn't all that good, so no details could really be made out about the group. It looked as if the encounter was caught on a security camera. Then, another group of people ran into the frame. The screen froze.

"Now in order to have a proper match," Aida began, pointing with a laser pen. The red dot began circling the first group of people. "the teams need to properly challenge each other." one by one, she pointed with the pen to each player on screen. "Five people from each team are allowed to compete at a time, but other players can enter in case of an injury to their teammates or something of that matter."

Another hand raised into the air. "Yes, Kawahara-kun?"

"What do you mean by 'enter'?" he asked scratching his head.

Aida gave a smirk. "You'll see." was all she offered as she turned back to the TV and pressed play. The two teams looked to be as if they were shouting something at each other from across the street, judging by their gestures. Then something abnormal happened. The Orb started glowing brighter and brighter as the teams talked to each other. Suddenly, the Orb became so bright that the screen was filled with a pure white color. Even though it was just a recording, the reaction was so strong that it was as if someone flashed a light directly into the freshmen's eyes. By the time their vision cleared and the white had faded from the screen, something shocking was revealed.

"T-They're gone!" Furihata exclaimed, referring to the two teams who had now vanished.

"Oh my gods, _they were vaporized!_ " Kawabata shrieked in horror.

"Relax!" Riko shouted back, trying to calm them down. "They're fine."

"But I don't understand," Fukuda started, looking unnerved. "What happened to them?"

Before Riko had a chance to answer a different voice chimed in.

"They were transported." Kuroko informed, revealed to be be sitting in the desk behind Kagami. Everyone turned to face him.

Furihata scrunched his brows. "What does that mean?"

"Once again, Kuroko-kun is correct." Riko admired. "People can't just brawl in the middle of a street. There are too many risks. The Akari Orbs are peaceful, so they transport the players somewhere else."

"But where?" the brunette continued to question.

"In another plane of existence." Kuroko spoke once more. "Like a pocket dimension."

"Exactly." Riko beam, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm impressed, Kuroko-kun. You really know your stuff."

"Thank you." the boy replied staring at her for a moment. "But of course I do. Remember?"

The room blinked at him silent for multiple seconds, not registering what he was referring to. In the end, it was Kagami who realized.

"Oh, that's right. You were on their team." he recalled.

The rest of the room, minus Kuroko, now had to take some time to figure out what Kagami was talking about, but then it hit them.

"You were a Generation of Miracle." Fukuda finally states, looking embarrassed. "I can't believe we keep forgetting…"

"It's alright." Kuroko reassured. "It happened a lot."

"You keep saying that, but somehow I feel like it's not okay…" Kawahara mumbled, scratching his head sheepishly.

Then, something dawned on Furihata. "Wait, Coach. Do you have any idea what this place, whatever it is, is like?" he asked.

Riko seemed to come out of her own embarrassed daze. "Hm? Oh. Well, they call it the _Campo di Chiaroscuro_. It's an Italian phrase meaning 'Court of Light and Dark.' It's more commonly known as the Court. " she informed. "As for the other part of your question, no. I've never been." she blushed. "The Orbs are picky, like I said. Only certain people can enter. Even if they have been Exposed, the Orbs can deny them entry."

Furihata furrowed his brows. "I see. Then…" he turned around in his seat until he was facing the person he was looking for. "You been in there right, Kuroko? If you went on missions then that also means you went into the Court." The rest of the room realized this as well and turned to Kuroko.

The bluenette stared at them for a moment until; "Yes. I have."

Everyone seemed to become excited and shocked at this information. Surprisingly, there was a look of awe on Kagami's face. "Really?" he asked, tone matching his face.

"I said yes." Kuroko simply replied back, staring back at his classmate.

"What was it like?" Kawahara asked, in a manner similar to the redhead's.

Kuroko knitted his brows slightly, a contemplative look crossing his face. "It all depends on the situation, but it's strange, nevertheless." he finally offered.

"Well then, Kuroko-kun," Aida finally spoke up, after having digested this new information. "can you explain for your teammates how exactly a match goes down?" she requested.

The boy looked at her with those ever-constant doe eyes, then gave a nod of his head. "Yes." he agreed. Kuroko looked off scratching his cheek lightly. "Let's see...it's like this;

"The two teams, along with their reserve players, enter the Court and are placed in different positions. Courts usually have lots of strange obstacles standing in the way and they vary from Orb to Orb. Usually, it's almost like a maze or an obstacle course set up, but really the Court can take just about any shape. The objective is to capture the Orb, which his hidden somewhere out of the way, before the other team does. First to reach it wins. A bit like 'Capture The Flag', I suppose." Kuroko finished.

"This is great then." Kawahara finally said. "Since we have Kuroko, he can just turn invisible and sneak his way over to the Orb before anyone notices!" he exclaimed.

"You're right!" Furihata beemed. "That way we can-"

"No." Kuroko interrupted. "I can't do that." The room was shocked once more.

"Well, why not?" Fukuda questioned, not seeing the problem.

"Like I said, the Orb is well hidden, so it takes a while to find it."

"So? It'd be so easy if you would just-"

"No." Aida interrupted this time. "It's not that he won't do it, it's that he _can't_ do it." she concluded. The freshmen gave her confused looks, but before they could ask any questions, Riko continued with one of her own. "Kuroko-kun, do your powers have a limit?"

The smallest freshmen gave a quick nod. "Yes, that's right." he confirmed. He looked away, as if what he was about to say next upset him. "I said once before that I'm not very strong, and using my invisibility takes a lot out of me. The longer I use it, the more tired I become."

"Oh." Furihata breathed out. "I see now. That's…" he trailed off.

"Rather inconvenient." Kuroko finished for the brunette, the bitter undertone hidden by his blank look.

"Well, it's not like it's something you can control." Fukuda tried to reassure.

The boy looked off once more, as if he was deeply pondering something. "Yes." was all he responded with, his fingers lightly running across the wooden surface of the desk.

Riko didn't like the gloomy feeling that was radiating off of the younger teen, so she continued on, in hopes of changing the mood. "Kuroko-kun," she said softly. "It's not like it's something that's inconvenient. We can work around it." she assured, but the boy still did not meet her eyes. She was about to try to a different tactic when suddenly, someone did it for her.

Kuroko felt slight pain radiate from the tip of his nose, then quickly held both hands up to the tingling heat, brows drawn up in mild shock. His doe blue eyes met with fiery red ones.

"Who care?" Kagami said, lowering his fingers (which were set in a post-flick position) from Kuroko's face. "What fun would it be if it was over just like that? It's not about getting the Orb the easiest way. It's a battle of strength. To win in an underhanded way like that is just lame."

Aida was going to argue that slightly flawed logic until she saw Kuroko's reaction. The bluenette looked up at the redhead, the smallest of smiles on his face, the gloom that was once filling the room dissipating instantly and fading away.

"Yes." Kuroko said softly, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

Riko yet again had a bad feeling. What exactly was Kuroko hiding? Why didn't he exist before high school? Why is he so quiet and grim looking all the time? Why did he look at Kagami as if he was...well, Aida wasn't sure _what_ Kuroko looked at him like. It was a _strange_ look. The smallest freshman was hard to read, even for Riko and her abilities.

It was another anomalous thing about the younger boy. Due to her Exposure, Riko's Type B abilities lead her to be able to asses everyone and their abilities and potentials, but from the beginning Riko couldn't for the life of her read Kuroko. Once noticed, her certainly had a _bizarre_ aura about him, but she couldn't really see anything about his abilities. She couldn't even tell anything about him as a person.

The trip to the library this afternoon would hopefully answer some of the questions they all had about the Phantom Sixth Man.

* * *

As soon as Riko was done speaking with the freshmen, she made sure that they, specifically Kuroko, would be busy. They needed to make sure that Kuroko didn't actually go and visit the library while she and the other Second Years did their investigating. That boy was very perceptive and he would definitely know something was up. Riko was wracking her brain trying to figure out a good way to distract Kuroko until suddenly the answer came, and without any effort on Riko's part.

From her spot off to the side, Riko saw Kagami walk up to Kuroko. He seemed to have suggested something and the younger boy agreed. They gathered their things, picked them up, and headed for the gym exit. Luckily, Hyuuga realized what he needed to do on his own and asked "Oi, where are you two going?"

"We live similar ways so we're just walking together, that's all." the tall redhead informed, looking off, as if he was angrily embarrassed.

"But Kagami-kun, you said we were going to get something to eat at Maji Burger." Kuroko spoke from Kagami's side, a putout expression on his face.

"W-We still are, so stop with that kicked-puppy look!" the redhead exclaimed. If his face was slightly flushed before, it was now quickly gaining the hue of his hair.

"Then please do not act so nonchalant about it, I was promised a chance to have a vanilla shake after all." the bluenette deadpanned, walking in front of Kagami and out the gym doors.

"Who're you calling nonchalant? That's your thing! Hey, why're you going so fast all of a sudden?! Wait a second!" the gym doors slammed and the Second Years were left in silence for a few moments.

"When did those two become so chummy?" Hyuuga finally asked.

Koganei scratched his chin with a contemplative look. "Furihata-kun mentioned something about them being in the same class but…" he trailed off, not sure of what to say.

Mitobe nodded his head.

"Yeah, that's right! They have pretty good chemistry for only knowing each other for a few weeks, ne?"

"I guess..." Hyuuga said noncommittally, still not so sure.

Izuki sighed. "You know, I was going to make a pun about chemistry, but I knew it wouldn't get a strong reaction."

" **Izuki, shut up.** "

* * *

 **Author: I figured I might as well cut the chapter off at this point, considering the library scene may actually get pretty long and this was already kinda information heavy.**

 **Next chapter, the Second Years head to the library and Kuroko and Kagami have a talk about the Generation of Miracles. However, Kuroko doesn't seem so willing to spill everything to Kagami just yet.**

 **I need your opinion! After what I said above, I'm not sure how I want this to continue. Should I introduce a Miracle next chapter? I'm not sure how I want to do it though…Should it be in a match or on the street?**

 **Also, does anyone remember the old cartoon Xiaolin Showdown? (That was my show when I was a kid, man). Anyway, this actually has some relevance and I'm not just being completely random, because it kinda inspired the battle scenes in this fic. In the show, a group of kids would go after mystical artifacts called Wu that could give them cool powers. However, if someone reached the Wu at the same time and grabbed it when you did, then you'd have to challenge them to a Xiaolin Showdown. It could be any type of challenge really, but they would fight and reality would sort of distort and they'd be in this like separate realm so no actual harm befalls the environment. Anyway, that's how I imagine an Excavation/Match to be like in this story. (You can find some clips on Youtube if you're interested).**

 **I hope you enjoyed and please review!**


	8. The Library

Once all the equipment was shut down and the gym was locked up, the Second Years headed to the train station, for the library was quite a bit aways from any of their homes or the school. On the train, Aida informed her fellow teammates of everything she was able to dig up in her research the night before.

"So there's nothing?" Hyuuga asked from his spot standing up. Luckily, the train wasn't too crowded today but there were still six of them and this conversation needed to be a little private so they were all crowded around each other. "Nothing from before high school?"

"Yes." she confirmed, taking out her phone and beginning to search for something. "I went to the Nurse's Office before and had Koganei-kun cause a distraction so I could take some pictures of Kuroko-kun's file." she finished, finding the photos she took of the file and scanning them with her eyes, searching for the slightest clue.

"What?!" Hyuuga exclaimed, gaining some startled and annoyed looks from the other passengers. He looked embarrassed, but continued on, albeit quieter. "Riko, you can't just sneak into the school's confidential files. You can get into some serious trouble."

"Relax. Like I said, Koganei caused a distraction and I only took pictures."

"That's not the point…" Hyuuga groaned.

"I don't see the problem? I'm only trying to find out more information on one of _my_ players."

"Um, I think what Hyuuga is trying to say is, doesn't this all seem like a breach of privacy." Tsuchida questioned. "If Kuroko even is hiding something, he probably has a good reason to. Shouldn't we respect his decision?" The rest of the group, Aida included, quietly thought over the ever-levelheaded Tsuchida's arguments. But Aida came up with her answer.

"I've been getting a strange vibe from that kid from the very beginning. There's definitely something off about him, but I can't figure out what." she informed, drumming her fingers on her lap. "There's a date of birth, blood type, but no personal information. Not even an address. This library card is the only information about Kuroko's personal life that we have."

"Well what's wrong with that? That's all we _need_ to know. Because the rest is his _personal_ life." Hyuuga argued, turning irritated.

"That may be, if he were anyone else." Aida now sounded a bit desperate. She kept her voice hushed but still firm. "If I didn't know that Kuroko was a Miracle, I probably wouldn't care as much. But he _is_ a Miracle. You can't tell me that you all aren't worried or at least curious!"

Her classmates paused, taking in their Coach's face. She blushed, looking away.

Her tone was now soft when she continued. "You all heard the rumors about the children who were taken into Teiko. Hell, the Miracles were the only children who ever even made it out alive."

The mood turned solum.

They had all seen the pictures once Teiko was exposed. Bloodied labs, countless chemicals, cramp sleeping quarters. Out of the hundreds of children stolen by Teiko, only one was ever seen again and survived, besides the Miracles of course, who many believed were only stories that people created to ease the pain of the truth. The boy that was found was severely battered and bruise. Dark spots and gashes littered his body, countless bones were broken. He was found lying in the street, unconscious and barely alive. When the doctors were finally able to revive him, he had a severe case of amnesia and wasn't able to recall anything about his time spent at Teiko. The only ones who never spoke up against Teiko were the Miracles. There were testimonies given by workers but there was no evidence that could convict the company heads. No blood was traceable and no bodies or evidence of anyone living in Teiko was ever found. The children that were thought to be myths stayed exactly that. Until recently.

"Kuroko-kun is...quiet." she finally offered hesitantly, her voice shaky. "It worries me. The children who were at Teiko for only days went through all kinds of horrors before they disappeared without a trace. Imagine what happened to the ones who lived there for _years_ …"

They all thought on this until Izuki finally spoke. "Alright, how about this, if when we go to the library and something seems fishy, then we'll ask Kuroko-kun about it." he suggested. He saw the disapproving look on Hyuuga, Tsuchida, and Mitobe's face, the one's who seemed the most hesitant about prying. "We'll do so _respectfully_ though. Meaning we'll have Coach just ask Kuroko about it offhandedly. She can just say she was missing something while filling out his forms. Okay?"

The most disapproving three thought on it and in the end they finally agreed. "Fine." Hyuuga sighed. "But if there's nothing that's suspicious, we drop it and leave Kuroko alone. Got it?" he declared pointing at them.

"Yes, yes. I swear." Aida agreed with a small smile. She'll have to reward Izuki for his convincing monologue. She'll go light on his training menu.

The group of Second Years soon reached their destination. After stepping of the train and checking one of the maps, they made their way to the library. The library was only a few blocks away, so it wasn't too much of a walk. On the way there, all of them, especially Aida and Izuki, kept their eyes peeled for anything suspicious. There wasn't anything too out of place. The neighborhood itself wasn't too nice, it was a little run down actually, but it definitely wasn't the worst place in Tokyo. When they finally reached the street of the library, Riko started her analyzing. The library looked pretty nice, it seemed to be very old and western style. It was much nicer than the other buildings on the street, especially that trashy looking apartment building.

They went up the stairs and entered the building, taking a look around. It was definitely one of the nicest libraries any of them have been in. There were old bookcases that reached the ceiling with tall ladders on wheels lined up next to them. There were many aisles and carts that were filled with old and worn-looking, leather-bound books.

Izuki let out a whistle. "This place is huuuuuge."

"Wow! It's like something out of a movie!" Koganei exclaimed, earning annoyed looks from the people sitting at the tables trying to study and read.

"Shh!" Aida hushed, slapping the brunette upside the head. "We're in a library, remember?" she asked rhetorically with a quiet tone.

"Can we have a look around, Coach?" Koganei asked, practically bouncing on his heels, despite the attack.

Aida thought about it. "Alright, meanwhile Izuki-kun, Hyuuga-kun and I will head to the front desk, the others can look around. If you see or find anything, report there."

"Aye, aye, Coach!" Koganei chimed, grabbing the arms of both Tsuchida and Mitobe and dragging them down one of the aisles.

Hyuuga gave a long sigh. "This is ridiculous, Riko. What exactly do you plan on gaining from this outing?"

"Answers." she simply replied. "Firstly, out of all the libraries in Tokyo why is Kuroko-kun going here? There are plenty that are closer to school."

"I don't know, money maybe?" Hyuuga shrugged. "This library is pretty old and it's free to the public. There are plenty of reasons–" Hyuuga's voice was steadily rising as he started getting more and more irritated.

"You know," Izuki started cutting off the glasses-wearing teen. "a book fell on my head yesterday when I was at home." the two started at him for a moment, confused. "But I only had my shelf to blame."

" **Izuki, shut up.** "

After a smug grin and two irritated sighs, they arrived at the front desk and were greeted by a young woman, maybe in her late thirties. Her light brown hair was pulled into a messy bun with strands falling in front of her eyes, the remnants of bangs. She also wore a glossy, pink lip stain that betrayed the worried frown her face held. "Hello, can I help you?" she asked politely, with an underlying tone of excitement and apprehension. It was clear that she wasn't used to newcomers.

"Hello, we're from Seirin High School." Aida informed politely. She threw on her best smile and jumped right in. "This is Hyuuga Junpei and Izuki Shuun. I'm Aida Riko. We're actually missing some information regarding one of our students. There were parts on his form that weren't filled out." Well, it wasn't a lie. "We were able to find out that he holds a card here. We were hoping that you'd be able to help us fill in the blanks." she finished, the muscles in her cheeks starting to ache.

' _Oh, she's good.'_ Hyuuga thought to himself.

The lady at the front desk looked a little hesitant. "Um, alright but I'm not sure how much I'll be able to actually give you though. May I see a form of ID from all of you?" she requested. Her tone however sounded like she didn't plan on giving them any information at all.

"Yes, of course." Aida agreed. She couldn't blame the woman. She reached into her bag and pulled out her student ID, prompting the others to do the same. The woman at the desk held her hand out, indicating that she wanted the High Schoolers to hand them over.

Once she had them, she turned to computer and typed a few things out, her eyes scanning the screen. It seemed she found whatever it was she needed to because she turned away from her computer screen and back to the students, inspecting the faces on the cards and the ones before her. "Can I have the name of the student you're asking about?"

"Ah, y-yes." Hyuuga started when Aida turned to him as if mentally telling him to ' _do your part, Captain'_. "it's Kuroko Tetsuya."

The tense aura that was radiating from the woman at the desk suddenly disappeared and she seemed to perk up. "Huh? You know Tetsuya-kun?"

Now the High Schoolers were confused. "You know him?" Izuki asked.

"Of course I do! Now that I think about it, he did mention that he would be attending Seirin for school." she recalled, scratching her cheek.

"You talk to him?" Hyuuga raised a brow.

"Of course! Tetsuya-kun has been coming here ever since he was a little kid." the woman at the front desk confirmed. "He's here nearly everyday. He does a few odd jobs for us here and there, too. He's such a sweet boy. All of us old ladies here absolutely adore him." she informed in a tone of admiration. "I'm Shinpai Na. It's nice to meet you. You must be the new senpais Tetsuya-kun speaks so highly of."

The upperclassmen were surprised. "He talks about us?" Hyuuga asked with a blush.

Shinpai gave a laugh. "Yes, when he does talk that is. He's a naturally quiet kid, but whenever he speaks of his new school and club mates, it's only ever in admiration." The older woman's face turned grim as she looked away. "I worry about him. He hardly smiles anymore and he's always alone. A few years ago, he'd never be here on his own."

"That's why we're here, Shinpai-san. We're missing some information about Kuroko-kun. Especially regarding his home life. Do you happen to have his parents' phone numbers?" Aida requested.

Shinpai shook her head. "No, I've never even met his parents. I don't think Tetsuya-kun has ever even spoken about them. At least not to me…" she thought aloud, trailing off.

That was a red flag in Aida's book. She was about to continue her line of questioning when Izuki started some of his own.

"You mentioned others used to come here with him. Who were they?" he asked.

"I can't recall any of their names." Shinpai confessed, putting a hand to her face, embarrassed. "They never really spoke much or hung around. They'd usually hang around and wait until Tetsuya-kun picked out a book. Sometimes they'd sit with him at one of the table as he read. Tetsuya-kun always introduced them as his friends." she tapped her fingers on the desk, persing her pink painted lips as she tried to pull up old memories. "They were a strange bunch. Usually a stoic boy or a very cute polite girl would be with him.

"The other boy wore glasses, he liked to read. He and Tetsuya-kun would usually be completely silent as they picked out books and read at one of the tables. The girl was very nice and liked to hang around him. Sometimes she and Tetsuya would read the same book together and have quiet discussions.

"Then there were times when other boys came in here. They usually made a big ruckus whenever they were accompanying Tetsuya-kun, so he didn't bring them around much. They all had unusual hair colors. Tetsuya-kun does too, I suppose. I couldn't believe their parents allowed for that at such a young age."

Aida frowned at this, resting her chin in the space between her thumb and pointer finger, signaling she was thinking deeply about something.

"So you've never met his parents or family members? No adults either?" Hyuuga asked, just as confused and alarmed as the rest of them.

"Actually. There _was_ an adult." Shinpai informed, her eyes widening as she remembered something. She quickly turned to the computer and began typing. "You see, we have a policy here that in order to become a card holder, minors must have them opened with an adult present. Tetsuya-kun was only eleven when he first came here with _that_ boy... _That_ boy was only eighteen, but he was the oldest person I've ever seen with Tetsuya-kun." she squinted at the screen, trying to read it.

"What was his name?" Aida asked. This may be it. The way to find some answers. At least then Kuroko will have a proper contact, in case of emergencies.

Shinpai frowned at the screen. "It's not here. I must've never entered his name…" The Second Years deflated. "But, his first name...it was…" she wracked her brain, trying to recall. "Shuzo-kun!" she exclaimed. "His given name was Shuzo." her brows furrowed once again. "I can't remember his family name. I know it was different than Tetsuya-kun's, though. He said he was his guardian."

"I see." Aida nodded. "Do you know how we can contact this Shuzo-san?"

Shinpai shook her head. "I'm afraid not. Like I said, I haven't seen Tetsuya-kun with someone accompanying him for a long time. At least a year. Maybe two?"

This didn't help to ease any of the Second Years' worries. If they didn't have a name, there was no chance in finding any of these people. Besides, according to Shinpai, whoever these people were have been gone for a long time.

"Ah, but I can give you his address. We require it just in case there are any unreturned books or other issues. There's no phone number in the system, though. I guess no one really ever needed to ask because there's never been a problem with Tetsuya-kun." Shinpai smiled. "Every book has always been returned on time and in perfect condition. That boy reads like a fiend, though. He's probably read at least a third of the books in our collection."

So he was a bookworm? That could possibly come in handy at some point. Kuroko hardly speaks, so it's difficult to figure out his interests, let alone try to connect with him. This would hopefully be an opening.

"Here it is!" Shinpai announced. "I'll print out the address for you. You can get it at the printer in the computer area." she gestured to the spot with her hand. "I do hope you find what you're looking for." she finished with a sincere tone and fretful frown.

The Second Years thanked the woman, it was clear that she cared for Kuroko and perhaps she were just as curious as they were? They headed for the computer area and on the way we're able to meet with Koganei and the others, who managed to find the only small manga section in the entire library. Izuki filled in the other High Schoolers on what they learned from Shinpai. In the end, it wasn't very much.

"We did manage to get an address though. Hopefully something turns up." he shrugged as they exited the building.

"So what's the plan now? Just all show up at his house?" Hyuuga questioned irritably. "I doubt he'd appreciate that."

"You're right..." Aida sighed. "Here's the plan then. Hyuuga, you come with me to find Kuroko's house and the others head to the train station. We'll all report 10 minutes early to tomorrow's practice to share what we find. How's that sound?"

"What? Why do I have to go?" Hyuuga asked.

"Because you're the Captain, stupid. Besides, would you let a lady wander these streets past sunset alone?" she questioned, crossing her arms.

The Captain turned red. "N-no…" he finally grumbled.

Everyone agreed with Aida's plan, but Izuki decided to stay and join the two on their search, as his eyesight was better than both of theirs and it was getting darker by the minute. The other three bid their goodbyes and the three students were on their way.

"We won't stay out too late." Riko assured as they began walking. "If we stay out any later past 21:30 we'll head back home."

"So what is this address anyway?" Izuki questioned as he walked besides his two friends.

Riko handed the boy the printed piece of paper given to them by Shinpai.

" _Hōki Sa Reta."_ Hyuuga read aloud as he leaned over Izuki's shoulder to take a look. "What kind of street is named _Abandoned_?"

"Do you think it was a red herring?" Izuki pondered. "A fake address?"

"No, I don't think so." Aida answered.

Hyuuga gave her a incredulous look. "What makes you so sure?"

"It doesn't seem like something Kuroko would do. He seems too responsible. If there was ever a chance that he didn't return a book or something, I doubt he'd hide from the library." she reasoned.

"I guess that sounds right...But-"

"It's also the name of the street that we're on." she spoke, cutting Hyuuga off as she pointed to a street sign in the distance.

Izuki and Hyuuga followed her outstretched arm, only to have their doubt proved wrong.

"What?!"

 **I'm really sorry about how long this took. I'm going to start working on some chapters before I start posting regularly again so the waits don't turn out to be so long. I have a few ideas for the coming chapters so I hope they don't take as long as this did. I had more than half of this sitting in my files since last year but got a little uninspired and unsure how to continue.**

 ***21:30 is 8:30 pm.**

 **See if you can discover the meaning of Shinpai Na's name. I like making things meaningful.**

 **Please review! It really let's me know that people are reading and want more.**


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